Bulgaria’s Ministry of Energy has officially announced the final results of the country’s first renewable energy auction. In this procurement event, the Bulgarian government allocated a total of 526 million Bulgarian leva to 397 renewable energy projects.
The funding was divided into two project groups of different sizes. Projects ranging from 200 kW to 2 MW received 107.5 million leva, while larger projects above 2 MW received 427.5 million leva. The first group had a contracted power generation capacity of 435 MW and energy storage capacity of 176 MW, while the second group had a power generation capacity of 2.66 GW and energy storage capacity of 1 GW.
The successful developers are required to complete their projects by March 31, 2026. This auction is a crucial part of Bulgaria’s National Recovery and Sustainability Plan, aiming to support economic and social recovery post-pandemic while promoting the optimization and upgrading of the energy structure.
The Bulgarian government has been vigorously pursuing renewable energy initiatives in recent years. In May 2021, the country committed to phasing out coal by 2038 and launched a program in 2023 to promote solar hot water systems, rooftop photovoltaic arrays, and batteries. By the end of 2023, Bulgaria’s installed solar power capacity had reached 2,937 MW, with plans to increase the share of renewable energy in electricity consumption to 34.7% by 2030.
