Topical Information

In the series "265 Stories of Economics" the Institute for Market Economics (IME) presents information on the renewable energy sources (RES) installed capacity at the municipal level as of August 16, 2023, based on Sustainable Energy Development Agency data. The database includes only sites with a guarantee of origin of energy, which is one year old. Inactive RES and self-use capacities are not included.

There are four main types of electricity from renewable sources – hydro, solar, wind and other sources (biogas, wood, black liquor, gas from wastewater treatment plants and landfill gas).

In Bulgaria, of installed and operating 5180 MW renewable energy capacity, the largest share has hydropower plants (about 2374 MW), followed by photovoltaic (2036 MW), wind (707 MW) and those using other sources (63 MW).

Hydroelectric power plants are predominately concentrated in mountainous areas. The municipalities with the most installed hydropower capacity are Belovo with 736.2 MW (where Belmeken Hydropower Plant is located, as well as Sestrimo HPP and Momina Klisura HPP), Krichim with 261 MW (Orpheus Hydropower Plant are located there, as well as the Krichim, Vacha – 1 and Vacha – 2 power plants) and Devin (where the Devin, Tsankov Kamak and Teshel plants operate).

The municipalities with the most photovoltaic capacity are those in the region of the Upper Thracian Plain. The winners are the municipalities of Pazardzhik with 230 MW (near the local village of Apriltsi is the largest operating solar park in the country - "Real States 184 MWp"), Kaloyanovo with 129 MW (most of this power is concentrated in the large FTP "Dalgoko pole" and "Dalgo pole 2") and Stara Zagora with 113 MW (of which 100 MW are provided by FTP "Terra Sol"). In a total of 254 out of 265 municipalities there are installed photovoltaic plants, and in 129 municipalities they represent 100% of all available renewable capacity.

Wind farms can operate only in windier areas such as the Northern Black Sea coast and on the slopes of the Balkan Mountains. The municipality with the most wind capacity is Kavarna with 399 MW (there is the large wind park "St. Nikola"), followed by Kazanlak with 72.5 MW and Suvorovo with 60 MW. Currently, 28 municipalities have installed wind capacity.

The whole article with a chart and maps of the installed RES up to the 2023 is published on IME's website.