Market status of the energy, produced from animal biomass and prospects for development in Bulgaria

Abstract

Bulgaria has long fulfilled its commitments to the use of renewable energy sources (RES) in the national energy mix, with the Eurostat data for 2020 showing a share of 23.3%, while the EU average is 22.1%. This places us third in terms of achieving the national energy targets for this indicator for 2020. However, if we analyze the data provided, we will find that this is mainly due to the installed photovoltaic and wind installations. Energy production from biomass ranks only fourth in the national mix, with a much smaller share compared to the potential that Bulgaria has. The aim of this study is to identify the problems for wider use of animal biomass waste for biogas production in Bulgaria by analyzing the current regulatory framework and incentives provided for the development of biogas technologies, as well as analyzing the existing infrastructure of operating biogas plants in Bulgaria.