Bulgaria will take on an ambitious plan to expand its power capacity from 330 megawatts at present to over 3,000 megawatts by 2020.

According to a European Union directive establishing mandatory targets for renewable energy in member states, Bulgaria is required to increase its renewable energy mix to 16 percent by 2020. Currently, renewable energy makes up 9.4 percent of Bulgaria’s supply.

Kostadinka Todorova, director for energy efficiency and environmental protection at the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy noted that not only is the administration on track to submit their action plan to the European Commission, but they are also working on a new renewable energy law to attract even more investment in the sector.

A workshop on integrating wind power organized by the European Wind Energy Association in cooperation with the Bulgarian Association of Producers of Ecological Energy pooled industry leaders, government representatives and national electricity companies to discuss the potential for wind power development in the country.

Bulgaria is expected to submit a national action plan to boost renewable energy by June 2010.

It is believed that if the industry’s growth is nurtured, wind energy will meet 13.5 percent of Bulgaria’s electricity demand by 2020. This could create revenues of 15 billion to 20 billion leva ($11.42 billion to $15.23 billion) by 2020.

“With installed capacity increasing more than fivefold in less than two years, Bulgaria is one of the fastest growing markets for wind energy in the world. Moreover, it has another 8,000 MW of wind projects in the pipeline,” said Christian Kjaer, chief executive of the European wind association.

Wind power is a growing industry across the E.U. In 2008, 36 percent of all new electricity generating capacity built in the E.U. was wind power. In addition, 160,000 workers were employed directly and indirectly in the sector which saw investments of about 11 billion euros ($16.35 billion) in the same year.

The European Wind Energy Association is the world’s largest wind energy network promoting the utilization of wind power in Europe and worldwide. It consists of over 600 members from nearly 60 countries including manufacturers with a 90 percent share of the global wind power market.

-   Katrice R. Jalbuena