Bulgaria opens the ‘funding gates’ for renewable energy

The new scheme will be one of the first under the European post-Covid recovery fund

Today, Bulgarian national authorities announced one of the first major funding schemes under the European Recovery and Resilience Fund – photovoltaic systems and battery storage for small and medium-sized companies.

Starting today, companies can apply for grants of up to 500,000 euros and build up capacities of photovoltaics up to 1 megawatt. According to Atanas Pekanov, Deputy Prime Minister of EU Funds Management, the government expects a lot of applicants. The end date for the application process is set for 14 May 2023.

A way to lower energy costs for the industrial sector

The scheme under the Recovery and Reliance plan would be one of the biggest investments in renewables Bulgaria has ever made. According to official sources, the aid for private companies would go up from an available pool of 10 million euros to an impressive 100 million.

Additionally, authorities have decided to lower the bar of the minimum application amount from 500,000 euros to 37,500 to open the programme to smaller enterprises. This is because the government scheme is not supposed to cover the whole investment, instead only covering 35%-50%.

At the same time, the application process is open to companies with up to 3,000 employees widening the scope of the programme from the initially proposed companies with only 1,000 employees. The measure would help many enterprises lower their energy costs, however, it is not as simple as buying and mounting several solar panels.

The fund can go towards funding consultations on where to install the panels as well as mandating that the battery storage capacity capable of storing up to one hour of the produced energy.

Meanwhile, the private banking sector has also developed financial tools to aid producers. As economic.bg reports, many local banks already offer loans tailor-made to cover the remaining costs of a potential project.