Bulgaria must double its goal of building new green capacities in order to be able to renegotiate the Recovery Plan and save the 12 billion foreseen for the country. This was said by former Energy Minister Rosen Hristov in an interview with Economic.bg.
The Cabinet was obliged by Parliament to start negotiations with the Commission and renegotiate the "Energy" part, with the aim of dropping the commitment to reduce carbon emissions from electricity production by 40% by the end of 2025.
What we've been discussing in the Recovery and Resilience Plan at the moment is a target to build 3.5 GW of new capacity by 2026. The idea is to double that target, but at the same time we can reduce the requirement to limit emissions," said Christ's
By how much the power of the coal plants will be reduced, an analysis of the line ministry, which must predict the load necessary for the Bulgarian energy system, will show. According to Hristov TPP "Maritsa Iztok 2" will have to operate with reduced capacity from 1/3 to about 1/4. The KonturGlobal Maritsa East 3 TPP's long-term power purchase agreement expires in February 2024, and they are also expected to cut production sharply as there will be nowhere to sell the electricity.
"We do not need to abandon the goal and lose all the funds under the Plan, because the economic situation itself leads to a decrease in production, which in turn leads to a decrease in emissions. At the moment the question is to offer the EC a target that the market dictates to us and they agree to this approach".
He commented that if Bulgaria simply renounces its commitment, it leaves no other option for the European Commission, except that it also renounces its commitment to Bulgaria, that is, we lose the money under the Recovery Plan, including the funds under the new REPoweEU program , which we don't want.
You can read the entire interview of former energy minister Rosen Hristov in Economic.bg next week.
