Bulgaria Last in EU in Green Energy Use - Report

According to local NGO studies, Bulgarian households rank last in the EU in energy effectiveness, such as the use of home solar panels. File photo

Bulgaria still lags behind all other EU Member States in the use of green energy, according to a study of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

The Foundation presented Tuesday its report on the possibility of Bulgaria's economy in using renewable energy sources and proposals to stimulate their development.

Bulgarian households rank last in the EU in energy effectiveness, leading to more expenses and decreasing competitiveness of local products, according to Dragomir Konstantinov, expert in common European policies. He says there are many hurdles in the mass use of solar panels at home, such as cumbersome and confusing laws, and unpredictability of local administrations.

"From e technical viewpoint, everyone can install on their balcony or roof a photovoltaic in the course of 2-3 hours while it takes 3 years to register it, which is absurd," the expert stressed.

Ruslan Stefanov from the Center for Study of Democracy commented that long-term investments in the Bulgarian energy sector "lock" green energy for decades to come, giving as example plans to build a second Nuclear Power Plant, which would restrict the use of any alternative energy sources.

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