A total of 329 project proposals from the 3 coal regions – Stara Zagora, Pernik and Kyustendil, have been submitted to the ISUN system under the procedure for supporting measures for energy efficiency of multi-family residential buildings under Priority 4 “Just transition” of the “Regional Development“ 2021-2027 (RDP). The received proposals are from 24 municipalities in the most affected coal regions. Their total value is almost BGN 455.4 million, which exceeds about 2 times the budget of the procedure – BGN 196.4 million.
The activities in the project proposals must correspond to the priorities included in the approved territorial plans for a just transition for the three areas, clarifies the MRRD. With their implementation, it is expected to reduce consumption and electricity bills of households, carbon emissions through the implementation of renewable energy sources, heating and air conditioning installations, reduction of energy poverty of the most vulnerable energy users. After implementing the energy-saving measures, the multi-family residential buildings in the three regions must achieve the energy consumption class “B” or higher and to support the transition to climate neutrality in these regions.
The evaluation of the received proposals will take place in two stages – it begins with an administrative compliance and eligibility check, followed by a technical and financial evaluation, and should be completed in the month of January 2025.
In addition to the current procedure under Priority 4 of the RDP 2021-2027, the Program's Managing Authority plans to announce the following measures by the end of 2024: to increase qualification and retraining, to map the skills of the affected workers in the sectors of coal mining and the production of electricity from minerals; to support the diversification and adaptation of companies (small and medium-sized enterprises) in the three regions to the economic transition and to support industrial and logistics parks and zones in them.
The planned additional investments within the 2021-2027 RDP related to the transition to green energy and environmental protection in the districts of Stara Zagora, Pernik and Kyustendil are in the amount of BGN 2.7 billion, provided under the Fund for just transition.
You can see detailed statistics on average property prices in Bulgaria by cities and neighborhoods HERE