BULGARIA

Bulgaria has 4,569 megawatts (MW) of operating coal plant capacity, 540 MW of mothballed coal plant capacity, and no new coal plants under construction or in planning. The Maritsa Iztok Complex is home to lignite mines that account for nearly all of the country’s coal production. The complex also includes the country’s newest coal plant, which was built in 2011. Most of Bulgaria’s coal fleet is old, with well over half of the current capacity commissioned more than 25 years ago. The government has relied on derogations from European Union laws to keep plants active. For example, in June 2021, Ministers from the 27 European Union countries formally approved a law to make the bloc’s emission targets legally binding, except for Bulgaria, which abstained because “the final compromise does not reflect our national position sufficiently.” In January 2024, Bulgaria's Minister of Environment and Water stated that the market would likely phase out the remaining coal-fired units in the country by 2030, but the official phaseout date was 2038. Bulgaria, as an EU member state, signed the EU pledge to reduce emissions by 55% below 1990 levels by 2030; it is also adhering to the EU goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.