In accordance with the Bulgarian Energy Act, the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy has drafted the ‘Sustainable Energy Development Strategy to 2030’.

This draft Sustainable Energy Development Strategy for Bulgaria will now be discussed and debated by the Bulgarian Council of Ministers and the Bulgarian Parliament ahead of its adoption.

Since the current Energy Strategy, adopted in 2011, is set to expire at the end of this year, the draft Sustainable Energy Development Strategy will cover the period from 2020 to 2030 and provide an outlook for further developments until 2050.

Different from the 2011 energy strategy and an earlier strategy formulated in 2002, the draft Sustainable Energy Development Strategy emphasises the development of renewable energy sources and industrial decarbonisation.

Of the five major aims of the draft Sustainable Energy Development Strategy, three are directly related to the development of renewable-energy sources in the country and include:

• aim one – “Guarantees for energy security and sustainable-energy development”;
• aim four – “Sustainable-energy development of clean energy and decarbonisation of the economy”; and
• aim five – “Implementation of innovative technologies for sustainable-energy development.”

One of Bulgaria’s major aims is by 2030 to reach “27.09% share of renewable energy from the gross-end consumption of energy”. When setting up these national priorities, Bulgaria took into consideration both EU policies on energy and combatting climate change and domestic issues, such as the availability of resources, macro-economic developments and predictions for the production and consumption of energy in both Bulgaria and the region.