Bulgaria

Already 2024 is shaping up to be another record year for solar installations. In Europe, projects are getting bigger as increasing difficulty with obtaining a grid connection makes smaller systems unviable. pv magazine recently caught up with Bernhard Suchland, CEO of Germany/Bulgaria based project services provider Sunotec, for a look a closer look at this and other trends in the large-scale PV segment.

Bulgarian businesses can apply for funding under two new tenders that aim to facilitate 1,425 MW of renewable energy generation capacity coupled with 350 MW of energy storage. Funding support is only offered for the storage component.

UK-based researchers have developed a novel method to estimate the amount of defrost cycles a heat pump will experience in the winter and how much energy it would require to implement the cycles. The results of their simulation showed a strong relationship between the number of defrost cycles and the ambient temperature.

Hithium and Solarpro say they will start construction on a 55 MWh energy storage facility in southwestern Bulgaria next year.

The Bulgarian government has opened public discussion for the country’s first renewable energy auction. Through the procurement exercise, it expects to allocate 1,425 MW of renewable energy power generation capacity and 350 MW of storage.

Tenevo Solar plant is expected have a solar capacity of 238 MW, a wind capacity of 237 MW and a storage capacity of 250 MW-500 MWh, with construction starting this month. Konstantin Nenov, director of Renalfa AD – one of the businesses behind the project – tells pv magazine the plant is emblematic of the Balkan country shifting away from coal and towards the sun.

Rezolv Energy, a UK developer, has bought Bulgaria’s largest PV project. The company plans to start building the 227 MW PV facility by the end of this year. It will sell power to unspecified clients under power purchase agreements.

The Bulgarian Ministry of Energy has announced that a BGN 240 million ($134 million) rebate scheme is now open for applications from households seeking to install solar water heating systems and rooftop PV arrays, potentially coupled with battery energy storage systems.

Bulgarian developer Sunotec says it expects to complete the 124 MW Verila solar project by the end of 2023. It says it will build the array at an altitude between 700 meters and 1,000 meters above sea level.

The Bulgarian grid operator says the nation urgently needs to expand its grid to accommodate planned renewables capacity. It is now holding meetings with potential investors.