In 2023 Bulgaria broke its annual record for opening new photovoltaic (PV) plants, adding 1,565 megawatts (MW) - almost twice as much compared to the previous record set in 2012. This is an impressive achievement that has fundamentally changed the country's energy system - on a sunny day, these new solar plants alone produce as much electricity as one-and-a half times the amount generated by the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.
With 700 megawatts of new capacity added in 2024, PV plants are already the largest energy capacity in the country. They had a total capacity of 3,969 megawatts as of October, according to the Sustainable Energy Development Agency.
There is more to this growth in solar capacity - designing and building it has literally created a whole new business sector. Hundreds of so-called installers have sprung up in recent years, making everything from small rooftop solar arrays to large ground-mounted parks. But there are also a few very large companies building large-scale plants in Bulgaria, as well as all over Europe and some - around the world.
The ten largest Bulgarian companies in the sector now employ over 3,000 people, which is approximately the same number of staff at all the thermal power plants of the Maritza East coal basin. According to estimates of representatives of the sector, the total number of employees for all companies is over 4,500.
The revenues of the top 10 companies for 2023 total almost BGN 1.17 billion (EUR 598 million) combined, growing by 19.5% year-on-year. These companies' profits total BGN 127 million, up almost 60% year-on-year, and expectedly all of them are in the black. In short, the sector is booming, provides employment and is one of the few Bulgarian businesses that operate globally. Therefore, it is no surprise that big investors in the renewable energy sector are coming to Sofia first to get offers for their future projects from local companies and the Bulgarian capital has already been dubbed the Silicon Valley of the sector.
The leader
Sunotec has been one of the most recognizable names in the construction of solar parks not only in Bulgaria, but also throughout Europe in recent years. The company was founded in 2012 in Germany by Bulgarian national Kaloyan Velichkov (79%) and Torsten Herfert. With offices in Munich and Sofia, it already operates worldwide and has built more than 580 photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of more than 8,200 megawatts. And next year it will build over 1,000 megawatts of new capacity.
The industrial PV construction company employs more than 2,000 people, mostly Bulgarians, who implement projects all over the world. In Bulgaria, Sunotec is known as the contractor of one of the largest photovoltaic plants, the 123 MW Verila solar park. Solaris Holding, a joint venture of Sunotec and the main shareholders in Eurohold Bulgaria, recently opened a hybrid energy production and storage park with 32 MW solar capacity and a 61 MWh battery storage facility near Pernik, to be followed by a second hybrid renewable energy project, in Ihtiman. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) in particular are becoming a new core part of the company's business, with Sunotec expected to implement 23 energy storage projects over the next few years, some of them stand-alone.
Velichkov told Capital Weekly that in 2023 the group was restructured to make the leap from a builder and contractor in the renewables sector to a turnkey service provider for the solar industry. The company is currently carrying out feasibility site investigation and design, including orthophotography and detailed electrical engineering. It also has an operations and maintenance centre in Sofia, which monitors the plants built in Bulgaria around the clock using the latest Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) technology.
Stepping back or preparing for a jump
The 2022 revenue leader in this industry, Solarpro, reports almost half the turnover in 2023. With 186.6 million BGN, the group ranks second, and there is also a drop in headcount - from 486 to 379. This is mainly due to the oversaturation of the market and the completion of most small- and medium-sized projects during the 2021-2023 boom in the sector. The company's next focus will be on batteries. Over the summer, it participated in the construction of a 55 MWh electricity storage system at a 33 megawatt solar farm near Razlog, and there are plans to expand the battery farm there as well.
Otherwise, the company has behind it more than 300 photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of more than 7,000 megawatts in 20 countries, mostly in Europe, but also in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The group currently operates with offices in London, Sofia. It also has offices in Warsaw, Bucharest and Skopje, and provides a comprehensive range of services from design and construction of solar and wind plants, through management and monitoring to energy storage systems and the reuse and recycling of lithium batteries, PV modules, cables and electronic scrap. Solarpro is part of Vienna-based Renalfa Group, which also includes Capital co-publisher Ivo Prokopiev.
The third in the ranking, PV Consult, has a similar profile to the first two. The company is a global provider of EPC services in the renewable energy sector (development, engineering, procurement, construction), having started in Bulgaria in 2009 with a 1 MW project. Currently it has a portfolio of over 3000 MW of installed solar capacity spread over 520 projects in Bulgaria, a number of European countries such as Austria, Romania, Germany, Italy, Albania, UK and, Spain, as well as countries such as Turkey, Mongolia, Morocco and Russia.
After increasing its revenues by a third in 2023, HEK Solar has not only managed to maintain its fourth position in the ranking, but also to move closer to the top three. Its owner and founder Vladimir Tabutov says he expects about 30% revenue growth in 2024, which means the figure will approach the BGN 100 million mark. What's more interesting about it is that it is one of the few companies that have also focused on agrisolars, i.e. collocating an agricultural activity with a solar PV project. The company is currently building the largest such project in Europe, of 120 megawatts in Austria, and is also working on 6 other smaller agrisolars in Italy. For now, the dual use of land for green energy production and agricultural activity is banned in Bulgaria.
but also to
The remaining companies in the top 10 have significantly lower revenues, but all are profitable and generally doing well. And the ranking is dynamic according to who is implementing how many projects and there will certainly be a lot of changes in 2024, as even a slightly larger plant, for example 15 megawatts, can increase revenues by BGN 10 million.
In 2023 Bulgaria broke its annual record for opening new photovoltaic (PV) plants, adding 1,565 megawatts (MW) - almost twice as much compared to the previous record set in 2012. This is an impressive achievement that has fundamentally changed the country's energy system - on a sunny day, these new solar plants alone produce as much electricity as one-and-a half times the amount generated by the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.
With 700 megawatts of new capacity added in 2024, PV plants are already the largest energy capacity in the country. They had a total capacity of 3,969 megawatts as of October, according to the Sustainable Energy Development Agency.
