More than 355 million BGN are foreseen in the Programme “Development of Regions” 2021-2027 for energy efficiency of residential and public buildings

BGN 355.4 million are earmarked in the Development of Regions Programme 2021-2027 to finance energy efficiency measures in multi-family and single-family residential buildings as well as in public buildings in the 50 largest municipalities in the country.

The news was announced by the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works Nikolay Shushkov. He participated in the International Forum of the campaign “Yes! To the Bulgarian Green Economy” - “Power and business together for clean energy”.

The programme also provides about BGN 2.5 billion through the Fair Transition Fund for energy efficiency activities in the 3 coal districts in the country - Pernik, Kyustendil and Stara Zagora. Additionally, it was agreed to include 10 municipalities related to the Maritsa basin in the eligible areas for employment and workforce mobility - Nova Zagora, Yambol, Simeonovgrad, Harmanli, Topolovgrad, Dimitrovgrad, Haskovo, Elhovo, Sliven and Tundzha, the Deputy Regional Minister further announced.

Currently, the funds are planned to support activities for land reclamation, storage infrastructure, green hydrogen, bio-gas, research and development, Shushkov informed. He stressed that part of the funds will also be directed to so-called social transition based on skilled employment, entrepreneurship, social services and measures aimed at energy saving and renewable energy sources.

Another opportunity that the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works is using to support businesses and people in the direction of so-called “clean energy” is through the implementation of the project “Support for Sustainable Energy Renovation of the Non-Residential Building Stock” with funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan, Shushkov added. The project provides more than 600 million BGN excluding VAT for energy renovation of public buildings. Of this, over BGN 370 million excluding VAT will be invested in public buildings owned by the state and municipalities, including administrative and public buildings, buildings in the field of culture and art, for sports, as well as facilities owned by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

“Additionally, measures for sustainable energy renovation of buildings in the sphere of production, trade and services of micro/small, medium and large enterprises will be financed with nearly 235 million BGN without VAT,” said the Deputy Regional Minister and stressed that the procedure is already open for applications. The measures will be implemented throughout the country, and the main objectives are to improve the energy performance of non-residential buildings, to reach energy consumption class “A”, to reduce energy consumption costs, which will also lead to savings in public resources, to achieve 30% savings in primary energy for each site of the non-residential building stock.

“In order to stimulate the implementation of energy efficiency measures, the government has taken steps to provide regulatory relief to businesses and consumers by reducing the administrative burden through amendments to the Spatial Planning Act,” Nikolay Shushkov stressed. Among the changes he outlined is the abolition of the requirement to approve investment projects for the issuance of a building permit for the installation of power, heat and cooling plants from renewable sources with a total installed capacity of For the installation of installations on existing buildings and structures, as well as on their roof and facade structures located outside urban areas, the elaboration and approval of a detailed spatial plan will no longer be required, the amendments to the Spatial Planning Act also state. The simplified procedure also applies to the construction of a renewable energy facility on the roof and facade structures of buildings connected to the electricity transmission, distribution or closed electricity grid and on the attached real estate in urban areas, the energy from which will be used only for self-consumption. In this case, the total installed capacity of the energy installations may not exceed 5 MW.

“In addition, with the changes we have made to the Spatial Planning Act, a building permit is no longer required for the construction, overhaul and replacement of renewable electricity, heat and cooling installations to existing single-family residential and villa buildings, the energy from which will only be used for self-consumption if their total installed capacity does not exceed 20 kW,” the Deputy Minister said.

At the end of his speech Deputy Minister Shushkov called on the representatives of business and NGOs for more intensive communication with the team of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works and stressed that he is open to dialogue in order to create good conditions for business, to facilitate and improve the quality of life of people and last but not least to reduce energy consumption.