EC May Fine Bulgaria over Failure to Stop Use of Wood for Home Heating

Bulgaria faces a penalty of up to EUR 120 M per year by the European Commission unless households stop using wood to heat their homes, according to Andrey Bachvarov, Chair of the Association of Biomass Energy Producers. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria faces a penalty of up to EUR 120 M per year by the European Commission unless households stop using wood to heat their homes, according to Andrey Bachvarov, Chair of the Association of Biomass Energy Producers.

In a Thursday interview for the Bulgaria On Air TV station, he emphasized that the biomass energy sector contributed to the solution of a number of environmental problems like the content of fine particles in the air and the utilization of solid household organic waste and sewage sludge.

Bachvarov, as cited by econ.bg, cautioned that the ambiguities in Bulgarian legislation, as well as a number of unresolved problems, posed a threat to the implementation of renewable energy capacity targets.

Bulgaria must build 80 new installations for sewage sludge treatment and rehabilitate 20 such units but the projects have been delayed substantially.

In February 2012, the Chair of the Association of Biomass Energy Producers in Bulgaria noted that the Bulgarian grid had not been initially designed to sustain renewable energy power stations.

He argued that as a result the output of the renewable energy power stations was unsteady, it created disruptions in the electricity grid, and the preferential tariffs were paid by the end consumers.

In his Thursday interview, Bachvarov disagreed with claims of the State Commission for Energy and Water Regulation (DKEVR) and the Electricity System Operator (ESO) that Bulgaria already had biomass power stations with a capacity of 41 MW.

Citing statistics of the Association, Bachvarov declared that Bulgaria had biomass power stations with a capacity of 7.5 MW.

He also noted that economic analyses had indicated that Bulgaria could not have biomass power stations with a total capacity exceeding 100 MW.

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