The energy resources of the future outlines the first issue for 2023 of the ESO magazine "Energy - Power Perspectives"

The year 2023 for the Bulgarian energy industry began with a vision for the development of the sector until 2050 and a decision of the National Assembly to renegotiate the deadline in our Recovery and Sustainability Plan to reduce carbon emissions in our country by 40%. Which energy carriers and production capacities should be developed in Bulgaria in the horizon until 2050 - we are looking for these answers in the first issue for 2023 of the ESO magazine "Energy - Electricity Perspectives".

We begin with a conversation with the executive director of the Bulgarian Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers, Ivaylo Naydenov, about the readiness of large electricity consumers to optimize their production capacities and switch to alternative fuels.

In a special interview for the magazine "Energetics - Electric Perspectives", the president of the Central Bank of Ukraine Plamen Dimitrov outlined the vision of the trade union organizations for the transformation of the coal regions in our country with a view to achieving carbon neutrality on the Old Continent by 2050.

However, the decarbonization of the European economy also requires measures to develop basic zero-emission capacities to ensure energy consumption. Nuclear energy is one of the levers for guaranteeing the continuous and quality supply of electricity for European consumers. Its undoubted key role in the decarbonization process also motivated the idea of creating a Nuclear Energy Alliance, which was agreed upon by ten European countries, including Bulgaria, at the meeting of energy ministers in Stockholm at the end of February. Support for the development of nuclear energy also comes from the European Commission's decision to recognize hydrogen produced by nuclear electricity as green. The topic of hydrogen technologies on the way to achieving Europe's climate goals also finds a place in the pages of the magazine's first 2023 issue.

The massive penetration of renewable energy sources continues to keep the issue of balancing measures of the electric power system and the development of energy storage systems relevant. We talk to the executive director of NEK - Martin Georgiev about the role of hydropower capacities in the decarbonization process and about the progress of the restoration works of the "Chaira" PAVEC.

Fears of natural gas shortages during the winter months have filled European gas storage facilities to maximum capacity. The mild winter and its end normalized the prices of the blue fuel, but provoked a new problem - how will the losses from the realization of the quantities of natural gas inflated at extremely high prices in the Bulgarian storage "Chiren" be compensated. Over the past months, Bulgaria has achieved a lot for the diversification of blue fuel supplies and applied for its positioning as a key factor in providing them to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. How our country handled the situation in the field of natural gas - we sought the assessment of the Chairman of the Board of the Association of Traders and Producers of Natural Gas and Hydrogen in our country, Veselin Todorov.

The issue dedicated to the topic of energy resources of the future, we conclude with the idea of building farms in space for the extraction of solar energy to support the fight against climate change on Earth.