Bulgaria

The government’s energy strategy targets new clean energy capacity this decade but all existing coal power plants will also remain active, gas pipelines could be upgraded and new nuclear facilities deployed.

The EU Council has rejected a Covid-inspired European Commission proposal for a €40 billion warchest to help coal-dependent regions shift to renewables, with the heads of member states instead allocating €17.5 billion. Despite the final figure being €10 billion higher than that suggested by the commission before coronavirus battered Europe, questions have been asked about how useful the program will be.

With Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Czechia having dragged their heels over climate legislation for years, BloombergNEF has estimated the most economic route out of the coal habit. It is a path which could see 40% less carbon emissions in 2030 than were recorded last year, with a 47% clean energy power mix.

The government is considering a €0.12/kWh feed-in tariff for PV installations with a generation capacity of up to 5 kW and of €0.10 for 5-30 kW systems. If implemented, the scheme will come into force next month.

Researchers have developed a high-resolution geospatial method of assessing the solar potential of all buildings in the EU and concluded rooftop PV could provide a quarter of the bloc’s electricity needs. The scientists say grid parity for rooftop solar has been reached outside eastern member states with cheap fossil fuel electricity.

An investor tool examining the coal fleets of major global power companies has offered up analysis which flies in the face of arguments solar and wind generation could help turn around the debt-saddled South African utility.

The transaction includes the sale of a solar park located in western Bulgaria.

The project is expected to be built by local company 4B Solar in three phases by the end of 2022.

The eastern European country saw the addition of only a few hundreds kilowatts of PV over the past few years, and for 2017 just around 200 kW of new PV systems are expected to come online.

Renewable energy support policies at the national and European level are needed to reduce the cost of capital for solar PV and onshore wind projects in countries in the South East of European, according to an extensive study undertaken by Ecofys,