The Bularian Wind Energy Association would like to present to you our point of view for the future development of the energy sector in Bulgaria.
On April 10, 2012 the Law amending and supplementing the Law on Energy from Renewable Sources was promulgated in the State Gazette and is now in force. The proposed changes to the RES law were submitted in December, 2011 by Valentin Nikolov and a group of MP’s from the parliamentary party of GERB.
You can find the text of the law here.
A bilingual version of the law (Bulgarian - English), together with the changes highlighted, is available to members of the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association.
The Bulgarian energy regulator (SEWRC) issued a statement on 13.03.2012 regarding issues with the payment and certificates of origin for energy from renewable sources that energy producers are faced with.
BGWEA actively participated in the efforts of the industry to help solve this situation. In relation to this, the association addressed the problem in official letters to SEWRC and the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism.
At its session on 11.01.2012 the parliamentary committee on economy, energy and tourism approved at first reading the changes in the Law for energy from renewable sources. Representatives of the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association (BGWEA) participated in the session.
In relation to the new changes of the RES law, BGWEA distributed the following materials among members of parliament and the media (in Bulgarian):
BGWEA's statement, presentation on wind energy, press release
A bill to amend and supplement the law on renewable energy was introduced in Parliament in the late afternoon of December 7, 2011. The legislative initiative comes from MPs of the parliamentary group of GERB (the ruling party).
The bill has been distributed among the parliamentary committees and until now revision has only been scheduled at the session of the Committee on Regional Policy on 15.12.2011. A review of the bill by the leading committee has not been scheduled yet.
The Bulgarian Wind Energy Association is closely following the process and will timely inform its members of any developments that follow.
In November, the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association (BGWEA) presented its photo exhibition "Powered by Nature: The Wind Energy Industry Today" at John Atanasoff high school in Sofia. The posters for wind energy were on display for the students for 2 weeks and in the end a quiz on the topic was organized. You can take a look at photos from the exhibition here.
To wrap up the event, BGWEA announced an essay competition for the students on the topic "How will electricity be produced in the future and why?". The deadline for participation was December 15, 17:00. The winner is Simeon Simeonov. You can read his essay here.
The State Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (DKEVR) published today its decision on the new feed-in tariffs for electricity from renewable energy sources.
The tariffs for wind energy have not been changed from the levels of 191.00 and 173.06 BGN/MWh which were proposed in May. The final decision makes mention of BGWEA's objections and the data submitted by the association, however, the tariffs were not increased.
Another set of tariffs are introduced for photovoltaics. The regulator now distinguishes between roof/façade mounted systems and ground mounted systems.
You can find the actual decision on the regulator's website.
The Bulgarian Wind Energy Association (BGWEA) is kindly inviting you to visit a one-week exhibition for the Global Wind Day.
On June 15th, we will welcome you at an official opening of the exhibition at 10:00 in the morning at the National Polytechnic Museum in Sofia (66 Opalchenska str).
We will be happy to see you at the exhibition!
The official news release of the event is available here.
The Bulgarian Wind Energy Association held a press conference at the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency on the new RES law (as enforced on May 3, 2011).
You can download materials from the press conference here.
The new law for energy from renewable sources has been approved by the president of Bulgaria on May 3, 2011 and thus enacted. The new law is available in the State Gazette.
The two most problematic provisions of the law for wind energy and other RES investors are:
- The term of the feed-in tarriff is reduced to 12 years for wind energy and 20 years for all other sources.
- The feed-in tariff will be fixed after the construction of the project has been completed (act 15 protocol). At the same time, the 5% limit in the annual variation of the premium determined by SEWRC (the regulator) is removed. This way, investors will have no clarity about the applicable purchase price until all investments in a project are made.
The draft of the new law for energy from renewable sources (RES law) has been accepted at the session of the Council of Ministers on February 2nd, 2011. This means that the law is now clear to proceed to the Parliament for the first reading in the Commission there.
A side-by-side comparison of the draft as it was passed by the Council of Ministers and the draft of the law from December 16th was prepared by BGWEA. The association is currently working on the preparation of proposals on the draft.
You can read the press release of the Government here.
Related documents: Draft of the RES law | Side-by-side comparison of the last two drafts of the RES law in Bulgarian
Members only documents: English translation of the new RES law | Summary in English of the new RES law
BGWEA submitted its comments and feedback on the Environmental Assessment of the National Renewable Energy Action Plan. The comments were submitted to the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism on November 19, 2010 as part of the public consultation on the Environmental Assessment. You can view the submitted comments here.
The executive director of the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association, Sebastian Noethlichs, discussed the current state of the renewable energy sector in Bulgaria at a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Sofia on October 11, 2010. At the meeting, Minister of economy, energy and tourism, Traycho Traykov, and Minister of regional development and public works, Rosen Plevneliev, were also present. Following the meeting, Chancellor Merkel held a public lecture for the members of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce.
To watch the interview, click here.
Today 20 leading wind energy companies from Bulgaria and Europe have come together to found the Bulgarian Wind Energy Association (BGWEA).
“Bulgaria has long been missing a professional industry association dedicated solely to wind energy. After months of joint work on policies affecting renewable energy, the founding members have united to formalize their efforts,” said BGWEA executive director Sebastian Noethlichs.
The association promotes sustainable development of wind power and other forms of renewable energy on behalf of all stakeholders. It already has published positions on the controversial proposed amendments to the Law on Protection of Agricultural Land, as well as Bulgaria’s action plan for fulfilling its 2020 renewable energy goals and other documents. Founding members include top global turbine manufacturers Vestas and Enercon, GeoPower, the co-developer of Bulgaria’s largest wind farm, and Enertrag, one of the world’s largest wind power producers.
The newly elected supervisory board of BGWEA includes 10 industry leaders covering the legal, financial and technical spheres. Chairman of the supervisory board is Kenneth Lefkowitz, head of the renewable energy working group of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria and managing partner of New Europe Corporate Advisory. Executive director Sebastian Noethlichs chairs the energy committee of the German Chamber of Commerce and is managing director of N-Vision Energy.
The full membership list of the association is available in the Membership section of the BGWEA website. Position papers adopted so far by the association are available in the News and Current Issues pages.
For a copy of the official press release click here.
On June 30th 2010 the Parliament of Bulgaria passed in the first reading a bill (002-01-28 from 16.04.2010) to amend the Law for the Protection of Agricultural Land. This bill imposes severe restrictions on the development of renewable energy projects on agricultural land. It essentially bans renewable energy projects from 28 % of the area of the entire country (category 1 – 4 land). The opposition to the bill is widespread and uniform. The bill is unnecessary. Renewable Energy does not endanger agriculture as decades of experience in other countries have proven. The bill is also excessive. The land on which developments are banned is more than 5,000 times more land that what is actually affected. The adoption of the bill will have grave consequences for the country. Jobs will be destroyed; income and investment will be lost. The EU Renewable Energy Targets will be missed. Bulgaria will hurt its reputation as a reliable investment destination and it will face legal consequence.
Our full response can be found here: 
You can find supporting materials on the topic here.
The final version of the Strategic Environmental Review (SER) of the Development of Wind Power in Bulgaria has been published by the consortium of authors. The final version has taken into account some of the criticism and suggestions that the authors received from several of the BGWEA members at the last public hearing on the draft report in Sofia on May 25th.
Most importantly the authors have headed the request of the BGWEA members to include a disclaimer that the overview maps included in the report should not be used as a decision making tool. These overview maps had been heavily criticized by both the environmental NGOs, the academic institutions and the wind energy sector.
The final report includes full feedback to the response of our members in Annex H. You can find the final report here as well as on the website of the authors at www.bgwindenergy.com.
The response by our members is available here.
On 24.06. a final draft of the Renewable Energy Action Plan, due to be submitted by the Bulgarian government to the European Commission by the end of the month, was sent to the industry for feedback within 48 hours. Several of the founding members of BGWEA pulled together and dedicated their teams to the task. And thus, BGWEA was able to submit a detailed response to the authors of the Action Plan covering the legal, financial and technical aspects of the document.
The feedback was received and appreciated by the authors of the Action Plan.
You can find the response of BGWEA and the final Action Plan here:
|
|
BGWEA response |
NREAP |
