President of Toshiba denies Nikkei report of plans for construction of “one of the largest photovoltaic plants in the world”

On 26 January 2011, FBC Business Consulting GmbH, a Japanese-language commercial news service based in Frankfurt, reported the following:

「世界最大級の太陽光発電所/建設」を否定＝東芝社長

東芝の佐々木則夫社長は24日、訪日中のトライコフ経済・エネルギー相と会談し、東芝がブルガリア南東部のヤンボル郊外に世界最大級の発電所を建設すると伝えた21日付『日本経済新聞』の報道を否定した。同時に、昨年発表した10メガワット（MW）の太陽光発電プロジェクト（投資規模3,760万ユーロ）については、計画実行を再確認した。

Here is my translation into English:

Toshiba President denies “construction of one of the largest photovoltaic plants in the world”

Norio Sasaki, President of Toshiba, meeting on the 24th [of January] with Traikov, Minister of Economy and Energy, during the latter’s visit to Japan, denied the report published in the “Nihon Keizai Shinbun” on the 21st according to which Toshiba would be building one of the largest power plants in the world on the outskirts of the city of Yambol in southeastern Bulgaria.  At the same time, he reconfirmed that the plan that was announced last year for a 10 megawatt photovoltaic project (investment scale: 37.600.000 euro) would be carried out.

FBC does not provide any source for this news.  Nevertheless the gist of this report, except for an open and clear “denial”, can be found in a report published in English on 24 January on Novinite.com:

Toshiba Offers Bulgaria Massive Renewable Energy, Smart Grids Project

… The Toshiba management has confirmed that the company will construct a 10 MW photovoltaic park near Bulgaria's Yambol, an investment worth EUR 37.6 M that will provide electricity to 2000 households.

Toshiba has declared it will pursue the project on its own, thus dispeling a report of Japan's Nikkei business daily from last week that the corporation planned to set up a joint venture with Tokyo Electric Power and the Japanese government to build one of the world's largest solar power stations worth USD 1.2 B.

Toshiba's solar park investment in Bulgaria is part of a plan to develop similar projects in Europe and North America.

Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister Traikov has praised the project near Yambol even though it ended up being much smaller than the media reports would have it. …

Most of these details can also be found in an article posted in Bulgaria at 17:44 on 24 January:

Тошиба потвърди, че ще строи соларен парк край Ямбол

This article too does not mention an explicit denial, but simply presents the fact that Toshiba is planning to build a plant of 4 billion yen (€ 37.6 mln) on its own, then adds offhand that on 21 January the newspaper “Nikkei” had published a report that the investment would be of over 100 billion yen and carried out by Toshiba along with other companies.