Minister Traicho Traikov has praised Bulgaria for the energy efficiency score achieved in 2010. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria's Minister of of Economy, Energy and Tourism boasted on Monday that the country had outperformed its interim and indicative targets on renewable energy and energy saving.
Speaking at a conference organized by Capital weekly titled "Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy", Traikov explained that Bulgaria had achieved 3549 GWh of annual energy savings in 2010, which was 1000 GWh over the indicative 3% target.
The Energy Minister said that this had allowed Bulgaria to register a record level of electricity exports.
He further made it clear that 2010 had also been a year of record production of renewable energy for the country.
In Traikov's words, the 5509 GWh of renewable energy Bulgaria generated in 2010 roughly equal 1/3 of the output of Kozloduy NPP and 15% of the domestic energy consumption, which means that Bulgaria managed to outperform its 11% indicative target.
Traikov attributed 2010 results to the huge quantities of water, adding that this demonstrated Bulgaria's potential.
He further informed that savings from energy efficiency measures adopted in the industry, transport, services and agriculture would reach 1.3 B in 2016.
The Minister warned, however, that energy from renewable energy sources (RES) accounted for as little as 3.5% of the total industrial energy consumption.
On a more optimistic note, Traikov suggested that the trend would be reversed by the business sector's growing interest in renewable energy installations.
Presenting targets set before the state administration, he said that by 2012, 60% of the paper used by public officials would be recycled, while 60% of the IT equipment, 80% of the office equipment and 90% of the air conditioners used would be energy-saving.