Hungary on Thursday inaugurated the country's largest solar power plant, which was built by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC) near the southwestern city of Kaposvar.
The ceremony was attended by Hungary's Minister for Innovation and Technology Laszlo Palkovics on site and CMC Chairman Kang Hubiao via video hook-up.
"As I myself have been involved with this project from the beginning, and have visited Hungary several times over the years, today, as chairman, I am especially elated to see the completion of this project," said Kang, adding that he was sad to have to attend the ceremony online due to the pandemic-related travel restrictions.
According to Kang, the decision to build the 100-megawatt (MW) plant was made five years ago, in 2016.
"When we looked for the location for our future power plant, one of the key factors in our decision was to look for a reliable strategic partner, who will support the project, and will look at it as its own. We have found this partner in the Municipality of Kaposvar," he said.
Kang also thanked the Hungarian government for its support: "The government of Hungary was supportive of our goal from the start, even though our project with 100 MW capacity might have seemed too grandiose to some people back then, when the average size of a solar power plant was less than one MW. We are grateful that the government saw us as a trustworthy partner and helped us make this dream come true."
The supportive attitude of the Hungarian government dates back to 2010, Palkovics explained to Xinhua after the opening ceremony. "The Hungarian government introduced its 'Eastern Opening' policy in 2010 with China as its main actor," he said.
"One of the areas of cooperation between Hungary and China is environmentally friendly investments, such as the 100 MW solar power plant that we opened today," Palkovics said.
The minister recalled that Hungary as a European Union (EU) member state joined the European Green Deal in 2019, which states that the economy should be carbon-neutral by 2050.
The opening of the Kaposvar solar power plant is crucial to reaching this goal, as the production of electricity in Hungary should fully come from clean sources by 2030, Palkovics concluded.
The plant, worth around 100 million euros (122 million U.S. dollars), is expected to produce 130 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and help Hungary reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions by about 120,000 tonnes each year.
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