Bulgaria aims at cutting energy use by half for every unit of GDP by 2020, announced the Deputy Minister of Economy Evgeny Angelov.

Angelov participated in Tuesday's 9th March  opening of a seminar “Renewable energy sources – wind and solar energy” in Sofia.

The energy generated through energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources will go into the production of electric and heat energy, cooling energy and biofuels, commented the Deputy Minister.

He pointed out that Bulgaria’s national strategy for renewable energy aims at ensuring that by 2020 16% of the consumed energy will come from renewable sources, specifying that this includes the requirement for a 10% share of biofuels in transportation.

One of the current priorities in the work of the Ministry is the development of a new Renewable Energy Act and of a National Action Plan concerning the energy generated through renewable sources.

This normative framework will regulate the rights and duties of all parties involved in the production of renewable energy such as government bodies, representatives of local authority, business, and producers.

The Bulgarian government is currently drafting an amended Renewable Energy Act. Earlier, December-January, the Cabinet even considered imposing a moratorium on new green energy projects in an attempt to halt the exponential growth of new projects, which far exceeded the capacity of the grid to support them and to clean up the mess with the construction of renewable energy parks in protected areas. Representatives of business have described the current situation as a “tacit moratorium”.

However, the applications to the Electric companies to qualify if a connection is available amounts to over 13,000,000MW wheras actual land which is regulated only amounts 186 MW for connection. So for the time being it seems whilst there are many applications, very few of these become reality. So the need for a new renewable energy act becomes necessary if Bulgaria is to meet it's 2020 commitments.