Bulgarian Green Energy: A Contradictive Choice of Future and Finance

Abstract

The Bulgarian economy is one of the industrial economies of Western Europe, at the same time, the country is one of the poorest in the EU. The high influence on the economy of Bulgaria comes from tourism, hence it’s very important for the country’s development. The energy transition taking all the mentioned into account is very important for the country. The country needs a special model, which takes into account the tourist specifics of the economy of the country. The two major directions of energy transition include green energy transition and the development of nuclear energy. Both have issues and need significant financial resources, while in the case of green energy, support is provided by the EU, and nuclear energy is developed without such support. Moreover, nuclear energy development is under pressure from the European Commission due to its non-green character of it. The article aims at resolving the issue of the interconnection of green energy and nuclear energy. The authors prove that the laissez-faire approach in case the two energy sources provide significant benefits, but have serious negative impacts on the economy of the country is the non-adherence to any of the strategies of the energy system development (neither nuclear nor green) is in the interests of Bulgaria. The major findings include the proof of the here above hypothesis, the development of the least financially-intense strategy for energy system modernization and the proof that green energy will not contribute to the economic growth of the country.