Bulgaria boosts renewables capacity by 938 MW in 2024

Renewable electricity capacity increased by 938 MW in Bulgaria last year, compared to the addition of over 1.2 GW in photovoltaics in 2023. At the turn of the year, projects for a total of 4.1 GW lined up for grid connections.

Bulgarian companies put 481 renewable electricity plants into operation in 2024, adding 938 MW, according to the Electricity System Operator (ESO), Capital.bg reported. Of note, solar power dominates the new capacity. No wind farm has been commissioned in Bulgaria since 2012, mainly due to administrative barriers and legal uncertainties. Such projects also face opposition from the local population.

In 2023, photovoltaic capacity increased by more than 1.2 GW. Like neighboring Romania, the country is enjoying a solar power boom. The article pointed to data from the Sustainable Energy Development Agency (SEDA or, in Bulgarian, AUER) showing that total PV capacity surpassed 3.6 GW.

However, the government risks losing hundreds of millions of euros in grants. The funds are stuck within the European Union, mostly due to the political crisis in Bulgaria, which started nearly four years ago.

Renewables of 1.12 GW in total operating under temporary status

As of December 18, there were 125 facilities on the grid under the temporary connection mechanism. Their combined capacity was 1.12 GW. The scheme, introduced in 2023, is for power plants in areas where the network requires reconstruction or expansion. Some of the units get only part of the full capacity online.

At the end of 2024, there were 330 applications for the connection to the distribution network in the renewables domain. The combined capacity was 707 MW. Another 52 projects were in line for access to the transmission system, amounting to 3.35 GW overall. Only 600 MW to 700 MW is expected to be built in total, the article adds.

Projects of up to 200 kW each make up the third category. Operators only need to send a notice to ESO. There were 732 in the pipeline, for 53.9 MW in total.

Obligatory bank guarantees slashed project pipeline

In comparison, there were more than two thousand grid connection applications for renewables in procedure one year earlier, for 7.2 GW. The amount mostly dropped because of the rollout of obligatory bank guarantees of EUR 25,600 per MW. It was later expanded to energy storage as well.

Investor interest is especially high for locations in Bulgaria’s south and northwest. The news outlet highlighted the Tenevo hybrid project in Yambol area in the southeast. Eurowind Energy and Renalfa IPP started the construction of a 238 MW solar power plant there in 2023. They intend to subsequently integrate wind turbines and energy storage.