“Decarbonization and Clean Energy: The Business Transition to Sustainable and Clean Technologies” was one of the most interesting panels during the ESG&FRIENDS 2025 conference. The fourth edition of the forum, organized by ESGnews.bg, was held on February 18 at the Hilton Sofia Hotel.
“We need to look at what is happening in the field of decarbonization in the last decade, as well as in our region in particular. Let’s take, for example, the solar energy. It was a super expensive technology a decade ago, currently it is the cheapest energy source in the world. Let’s look at storage batteries – five years ago we had 2 gigawatts of installed capacity in Europe. By the end of 2023 (we still don’t have data for 2024) it has increased 18 times – we now have roughly 36 gigawatts of capacity. In my opinion, we need to use this speed of development, all possible investments and possible technologies to move even faster towards decarbonization”, said moderator Nikola Gazdov, Chairman of APSTE – the Association for Production, Storage and Trade of Electricity in Bulgaria.
What are the challenges facing Bulgaria and the region?
One of the special guests of ESG&FRIENDS 2025 – Sofia Beck, outlined the main challenges facing Bulgaria and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
“Bulgaria’s energy portfolio is somewhat similar to that of the Czech Republic. Your country is heavily dependent on coal, you are developing renewable energy, you have little hydrogen, you are a nuclear country and you want to decarbonize. The conditions for this in Bulgaria are good, not as good as in Spain or Italy, but they are good. The country has a stable electricity system, which, however, needs to be improved, since there are no suitable conditions for energy from renewable sources. In fact, all these challenges are also facing the entire Central and Eastern Europe region. Personally, I believe that for an economy to develop and move forward, it needs a balanced energy mix, in which one component should not be completely eliminated for the sake of another”, said Beck, who is the managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group.
What is the role of gas and hydrogen?
Natural gas is directly related to the use of renewable energy. This was stated by Nikola Delev, acting Director of Strategic Planning and Development at Bulgartransgaz EAD.
“Gas plays a significant role in the transition period. In order to implement this transition, we need three foundations – energy security, financial accessibility to energy and clean energy. Gas meets all three components. It is related to the development of renewable energy. Gas technologies can also facilitate the technology of the future – hydrogen. In fact, this has already been proven in Western Europe. There, the share of gas in the energy mix in terms of primary and final energy consumption has increased dramatically”, said Delev.
He also spoke on the topic of the use of hydrogen, which is widely relied on as a technology of the future.
“The inclusion of hydrogen in the energy mix is not yet happening. This is understandable, because the idea is new. However, there are already initiatives in this direction in Europe and it can be assumed that hydrogen will have its share in Europe’s future energy mix. The European Union plans to produce 10 million tons of hydrogen by 2030 and also to import the same amount. This is an extremely ambitious undertaking – we are talking about consuming 20 million tons of hydrogen. Bulgartransgaz is working on its own projects related to hydrogen. The first is for the construction of a completely new infrastructure for hydrogen transmission. The project has already been approved by the EU as one of common interest, and funding is yet to be sought. A second project envisages the adaptation of the existing gas transmission network to operate with up to 10% hydrogen”, Delev explained.
Sofia Beck shared a different opinion on the topic.
“Hydrogen may be economically viable in 50 years. But at the moment, its use relies on completely new technologies. From this point of view, I do not believe that it is necessary to invest huge amounts of money right now. There may be short-term benefits from hydrogen now, and, of course, we should not reject them. But this is associated with serious subsidies”, Beck warned.
Energy efficiency – a direct path to decarbonization
Energy efficiency plays a key role in decarbonization efforts. This position was expressed by Kalina Milenkova, Head of “Finance of Intelligent Infrastructure” at Siemens Bulgaria.
“We need to focus on energy efficiency. There are currently extremely dynamic processes underway in this area. The best way to achieve energy efficiency is through the use of smart technologies. Businesses should not only focus on financing renewable energy sources, but also on energy efficiency solutions. Such a solution is PAYS – Pay As You Save. This is a very applicable and effective move that is beneficial for both businesses and individuals. For example, we can look at one of the projects in the Bulgarian Recovery and Sustainability Plan, which included the renovation of residential buildings for greater energy efficiency. This is a good financing model because the initial investment comes from a third party – for example, a municipality – and then the consumer returns the investment through electricity bills”, said Milenkova.
She also drew attention to the fact that buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption.
“This problem should not be ignored. And once again we come to the use of data. We need to focus on both consumption and data exchange with the network itself. The problem with the European network is accessibility, which is lacking for a number of reasons. We need to work with real-time data, and if we have it from both consumption and the network, we can achieve energy efficiency and save money through smart solutions. As a summary, I can say that sustainability and digitalization are two inseparable processes”, Milenkova pointed out.
