AS Eastern Europe’s power sector has taken a hit from a record drought, Bulgaria has benefitted from building out battery storage capacity alongside its rapid solar expansion.
Around a hundred battery energy storage system (BESS) sites are now operating, most of them built in the past two years. The large-scale projects take advantage of former industrial sites and airfields or are integrated into existing power stations, including coalfired plants.
“The scale and speed of storage deployment in Bulgaria is unprecedented in a European context,” Stavros Papathanassiou, a professor at the National Technical University of Athens, told AFP.
Low administrative hurdles, a receptive market for clean energy and EU funding are among the reasons expert cite for the country’s leading role in the region.
The battery installations absorb surplus power from solar installations and feed it back into the grid when demand rises.
That proved a boon when exceptionally low Danube levels disrupted power generation at nuclear and hydroelectric plants in Eastern Europe, boosting demand for electricity imports.
In July and August, Bulgaria — one of the EU’s poorest countries — recorded net electricity exports of around 830 gigawatt-hours a month, more than twice the average in May and June. — AFP
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