Bulgaria - Wind and solar energy to be kept off good farmland

The Bulgarian government on Wednesday proposed a ban for building solar and wind power farms on quality arable land to temper an investment boom that had sparked fears for grid instability and high energy prices. The ban is part of amendments to the agriculture land law aimed to keep high-quality arable land for farmers. It is pending parliament approval.

"The goal is to achieve a better balance between protecting the arable land and the need of the investment growth," the government said in a statement.The Balkan country, where lucrative incentive schemes to support renewable energy sources created wind and solar energy bonanza, has already tightened the rules for getting an environment licenses for building new plants.

Bulgaria has received applications for new projects for over 12,000 megawatts -- well above its grid capacity -- and the grid energy operator had warned that the green energy rush could cause blackouts.The spike in renewable energy assets has also raised concerns in the EU's poorest member state that electricity bills would jump and further hit the households' limited incomes.

The need to raise green energy's share to 16-20 percent by 2020 to meet EU targets on reducing emissions, has prompted Bulgaria and other east European members to offer preferential prices to attract investors in renewables. This has led to a wind power boom in Bulgaria and Romania and numerous solar projects in the Czech Republic. Prague is also considering tempering the solar investment boom by cutting its generous incentives.

The share of renewable energy rose 26 percentage points to 9.9 percent in Bulgaria last year, despite a 4.5 percent drop in total power consumption, energy ministry data showed. Dozens of Austrian, Italian, Spanish, Belgian and German companies have rushed to build new wind and solar energy assets, bringing the wind energy capacity to 330 MW last year from 103 MW in 2008 and to 5.7 MW of solar from 1.4 MW in 2008. Bulgaria, like most other ex-communist EU members, relies mainly on coal and nuclear power to meet its energy needs.

For more information please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net