A new information portal will support the development of energy communities in Bulgaria
Bulgarian citizens can now use the "Energy for Citizens in Bulgaria" information platform, aimed entirely at supporting the development of energy communities. The national online portal aims to respond to the growing public interest in participating in collective initiatives in the field of renewable energy and the need for informational support and accessible resources on the subject.
The benefits for citizens of participating in energy communities are numerous – in addition to independence, access to safe, clean and cheap energy, energy communities also provide an opportunity for additional income to its members. Unfortunately, however, the still low level of awareness about the opportunities for citizens to participate in this type of initiative is a major obstacle to their mass entry into Bulgaria.
"Our goal is to provide citizens and organizations with the necessary knowledge and tools in the most accessible way to initiate and develop successful projects for energy communities," says Dr. Maria Trifonova, lecturer at the Faculty of Economics of Sofia University "St. Kl. Ohridski" and coordinator of the European project SHAREs, which is implemented by the Black Sea Energy Research Center.
On the website of the portal https://sharerenewables.bg/, anyone interested can find and use completely free of charge the full spectrum of information necessary for the creation of a successful civil initiative - steps for the implementation and management of such a project, possible sources of funding, legal aspects, good examples from practice and many others. Another important aspect is that the platform aims to become a space to search and find like-minded people to initiate energy communities, as well as to provide up-to-date information on start-up or active communities in which additional members can join.
In Bulgaria, this type of joint initiatives became possible only after the changes in the energy legislation from October 2023, with the expected creation of administrative relief and incentives for their development. Four months later, there are already two projects for energy communities, as for comparison - energy communities in Europe already number over 10,000. The first project for an energy community in Bulgaria was the initiative of the Municipality of Gabrovo to build a 100-kW photovoltaic plant worth nearly 160 BGN 000. The project is currently under construction and is expected to be operational by the end of the year. 73 participants joined the community, including citizens, the municipality and six legal entities.
The other active energy community is the entirely civil initiative "Izgrei BG" - a small photovoltaic plant built by three residents of the village of Belozem. The community members are planning to build a battery to the plant very soon and share "One of the biggest challenges we faced was to overturn the local paradigms and beliefs that our project has no chance to come to fruition because it has not been done before something similar here'. You will find more about these projects, as well as the upcoming initiatives, on the Internet platform "Energy for Citizens in Bulgaria"
Additional information on energy communities:
Energy communities are voluntary civic initiatives operating under a different legal form that can bring together friends, neighbors, small and medium-sized enterprises, local government representatives, etc. willing to co-invest in renewable energy. Together, they can produce green energy from photovoltaic or other types of systems, consume it for their own needs, share the surplus with each other or with other citizens, including free of charge to help vulnerable consumers, or store it for further use. Bringing people together brings a number of social, environmental and economic benefits, as it enables active citizen participation in the energy transition, stimulates clean energy production and energy efficiency, and helps create new jobs in the local community.
The definition of energy community was introduced into the Bulgarian legislation on 13.10.2023 and follows the provisions laid down in Directive (EC) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and the Council of 11 December 2018 to promote the use of energy from renewable sources. According to the Law on Energy, the energy community is a legal entity that "can carry out production, including energy from renewable sources, distribution, supply, consumption, aggregation, storage of electric vehicles or to provide other energy services to its members or shareholders”.