Bulgaria may put a moratorium on new RES projects
In the first half of Decemeber 2009, it has emerged that Bulgaria may impose a 6 month moratorium on projects for electricity production from renewable energy sources (RES) unless a national plan for their development and environmental impact until 2020 is created. This was announced by the Minister of Environment and Water, Nona Karadjova, at a conference entitled “Bulgaria becomes a low-carbon economy”, held in Sofia on 9 December 2009.
The Minister explained that this measure would only affect projects that were in their early stages, including change of land purpose and signing of initial connection contracts with the National Electricity Company (NEC) and the electricity distribution companies. The moratorium would mean that all action on these procedures would be blocked.
The expected national development plan is to contain estimates of the potential for the construction of ecological energy capacities in every region, plans for support of producers, NEC and electricity distributors’ network developments, and environmental assessment. It is supposed to be ready until April 2010, and the European Commission is to approve it by mid 2010.
The main reasons for the potential moratorium is incorrect applications of Natura 2000 guidelines and construction in these protected areas, for which punishment procedures have been started against Bulgaria.
The Environment Ministry now needs to swiftly define what it means by projects in an ‘early stage’, especially in reference to insecurities it can cause among investors. According to the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, Traycho Traykov, the period of moratorium would be short and it would not affect investors’ interests.
Source:
http://www.energetika.net/
