Bulgaria scraps €800m green power storage megapark

Plans for Bulgaria’s massive €800 million project to build a battery park to store ‘green’ electricity, included in the country’s recovery plan and one of the world’s largest, have been scrapped, the government announced on Wednesday.

Instead, the country will try implementing a nearly four times smaller project for €250 million. Separately, the state will provide a 50% subsidy for companies that want to build a power storage system.

“Projects for which realisation is delayed for more than a year are dropped in a natural way,” Finance Minister Asen Vasilev commented.

Bulgaria is lowering its ambition for a park to store renewable-based electricity, which comes at a time when the EU Commission has decided to accelerate investments in such projects.

But it is not the only project the government has dropped from Bulgaria’s Recovery and Sustainability Plan, under which the country expects to receive a further €4.5 billion. Bulgaria already received €1.35 billion a year ago but has to prove that it has implemented a series of reforms in the judiciary before receiving the remaining amount.

The government’s decision affects 18 projects, including cancelling a €90 million project to build a proton centre for cancer treatment. The decision comes after the Commission reduced Bulgaria’s recovery budget by €500 million because of its good economic performance during the pandemic.

“The project is a year late, and there is no way that public procurement for the construction and purchase of the equipment, which must be completed by 30 June 2026, can start and be paid for,” said Vasilev.

Health Minister Hristo Hinkov presented to Vasilev his arguments on why it is important to have a proton centre on Tuesday, but the final decision rests with Vasilev’s Finance Ministry, reports the Mediapool.

While proton therapy is more precise, less invasive and gentler than standard radiotherapy, making it particularly suitable for treating children, the lack of treatment in Bulgaria has led to patients seeking treatment abroad.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)