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Bulgaria must invest and develop its renewable energy sector further - expert

Wednesday, Apr 27, 2011

In a world of global warming, expensive fuel prices and increasing carbon emissions, Bulgaria would be smart to invest heavily in the development of more renewable energy, experts have said.

By 2020, Bulgaria could develop its renewable energy sources (RES) to such an extent that the share of energy consumption would be about 26 per cent of the national total, Petko Kovachev from the Institute for Green Policies said during a round-table discussion on April 26, cited by Investor.bg.

The immediate target for Bulgaria is to reach 16 per cent of RES by 2020, he said.

With proper planing and investment, Bulgaria can reach 100 per cent of RES consumption by 2050, Kovachev said.

According to the expert, the country has sufficient resources necessary for the production of energy emanating from biomass and waste.

In order for that to happen, however, and in order for the development of RES in Bulgaria to be effective, "it is necessary for the single buyer model (as is the present case with the National Electric Company NEK) to be terminated, and to improve a number of legislative measures pertaining to RES, local taxes, apartment blocks and forests as well as the trade act," Kovachev said.

Further investment and development of the sector have been hampered in the past by "corruption", the lack of coherent regional policy, and the lack of initiative from the renewable energy associations".

Bulgaria should also consider the risk of the impending climate change very seriously, "because in about 15 years, the country will have the same climate as Greece," Kovachev said.

Bulgaria's renewable energy output surged by 67 per cent to 5509 GWh in 2010, according to an Economy Ministry report which will be presented on March 30 2011.

The volume, which exceeded the ministry's projections by 21 per cent, accounted for 15 per cent of the total gross domestic consumption of electricity in the country, beyond the 11 per cent target.

Large-scale hydro-electric plants generated the largest share of green energy in the past year, or 1919 GWh.

The capacity of small-scale hydro-electric plants in 2010 was 12.6 per cent higher than in 2009, wind farms' capacity rose by 38.4 per cent to 465 MW, while that of photovoltaic (PV) solar power facilities saw the largest increase, 300 per cent, to 21.4 MW.

Source: thesofiaecho.com