Bulgaria Solar Energy Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Bulgaria Solar Energy Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Bulgarian solar energy market is expected to witness a CAGR of more than 2% during the forecast period. The primary driver for the market consists of government initiatives that include clean and alternative energy sources to reduce carbon emissions. However, factors, such as delays in projects, are expected to hinder the market growth during the forecast period.

Key Highlights

• The growing investment in the renewable sector is expected to drive the solar energy market during the forecast period.
• The Institute of Hydrology and Meteorology (IHM) of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) has estimated the solar energy potential of the country, which is around 12,995 million metric ton of oil equivalent. The estimation was done based on the sunshine hour data from 45 sites, covering 30 years and actual solar radiation (SR) measurements from 5-6 stations. Up till 2018, the country has utilized a negligible percentage of the total potential. Such a high potential is expected to provide solar energy companies a significant opportunity to tap into this market in the future.
• On the flip side, high solar PV installation costs (about 10% higher than the weighted-average of European countries outside Southeast Europe) are expected to restraint the market growth during the forecast period.

Key Market TrendsGrowing Investment to Drive the Market

• Electricity plays a vital role as a factor of economic growth and social welfare, in which it is essential to have an accessible, reliable, and sustainable form of energy. Investment in the renewable sector, like solar, is expected to meet the rising demand for electricity in the country.
• In 2018, Bulgaria planned to allocate EUR 33 million to develop renewable energy sources and improve energy efficiency. These investments are expected to allow sectors, like solar energy and wind energy, to grow further in the future.
• Moreover, as of January 2020, the European Investment Bank has provided Bulgaria with EUR 15 million to support climate action projects, which is likely to help the solar power market expansion.
• The investment is estimated to increase the solar installed capacity up to 1,180 megawatts (MW) in 2025 from 1065 MW in 2019. Moreover, the electricity generation is expected to increase to around 1,340 gigawatts hour (GWh) by 2025.
• A 195 kWp solar power plant for textile products manufacturer Delta Textile-Bulgaria is under various implementation segments. It is expected that the plant is to be operational by 2020.
• Moreover, in order to increase its renewable energy, the country has set a target of increasing renewable energy percentage share in electricity generation to around 17% by 2021, and to 18% by 2026. Thus, it is likely that the country will invest more to achieve its targets in the future.

High Installation Cost to Restrain the Market Growth

• Although the cost of producing photovoltaic devices continues to decline globally, the rate of adoption of solar PV is not as rapid as expected. Moreover, with numerous socio-technical and regional policy challenges, the economic factor of the high installation cost of investments required for setting up a solar PV plant acts as a major restraint. As of 2018, the installation cost of solar PV in southeast Europe is around USD 1215/kW, which is higher compared to other parts of the European nations.
• Apart from the costs of the solar PV modules, costs, like high installation cost, operation cost, maintenance and repair costs, and the low costs of competing sources of energy, add to the cost of investments required for solar PV installations.
• Installation of a solar photovoltaic (PV) array is not only an environmental-specific decision but also a financial decision. Irrespective of the decreasing cost of equipment, the cost of permits and labors, along with the installation of solar PV with challenging and complex orientation, adds a great deal to the final installation costs.
• Furthermore, the payback period risks and return on solar PV investment compared to other sources of fuels, when environmental factors are not considered, is high. Thus, all these factors are likely to act as a restraint for the market growth during the forecast period.

Competitive Landscape

The Bulgarian solar energy market is partially fragmented. Some of the key players in the market include JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd, Solarity BG, Hermes Solar Ltd, Solarpro Holding PLC, NEMCOM Energy Company, ELSOL Ltd, and SkyTech Energy Ltd.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

Companies Mentioned

IBM Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Internap Corporation
Packet Inc. (An Equinix Inc. Company)
Scaleway Inc.
Amazon Web Services Inc
Rackspace Inc.
CenturyLink, Inc.
LightEdge Solutions, Inc

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