24.01.2023

MINISTRY OF INNOVATION AND GROWTH: IN FEBRUARY, WE OPEN THE PROCEDURE FOR RES AND LOCAL ENERGY STORAGE FOR BGN 200 MILLION

In February, the application under the "RES and batteries for local energy storage" procedure, worth BGN 200 million, will start. It is the third that the Ministry of Innovation and Growth opens under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. This was made clear by Maria Mladenova, head of the "Project Selection and Negotiation" department at the General Directorate of "European Competitiveness Funds" in the ministry.

The public discussion of the procedure was announced on December 12 and ended a month later - on January 12. The companies' application will last for three months. The measure is for the construction of a photovoltaic system - so-called solar panels, to be installed on the roof of the given enterprise, its facade or on the terrain on which it is located. Batteries for local energy storage will be able to store it for up to several days, and the energy itself will be produced solely and only for own use, without being able to be resold and returned to the country's energy system.

In addition to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, but also those employing up to 499 persons or up to 1,500 persons will be able to apply under the procedure. "We expect that the interest in the "RES and batteries for local energy storage" procedure will be even greater than that in the two already completed procedures in the ministry," said Maria Mladenova. According to her, to date, under the two announced procedures, over 10,200 projects have been received in just 5 months.

Over 2,500 project proposals have been received under the first - "Technological modernization", and over 7,700 projects under the second - "ICT solutions and cyber security". "There is serious interest on the part of companies in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, apart from Sofia, there is also Plovdiv, Varna and Ruse. We hope that the other districts will also become more and more active," Mladenova said. She pointed out that the application under the procedures of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and those of the EU structural funds is entirely online through the ISUN 2020 system, which is as easy as possible for businesses. On December 30, the first winning projects were announced - 953 projects, which will receive funding for BGN 260 million from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan under the "Technological Modernization" procedure. At the moment, nearly 7,700 submitted projects under the second measure "ICT solutions and cyber security" worth BGN 30.6 million are also being evaluated. It is expected that the winners will be announced soon.

Under the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, seven procedures for BGN 1.2 billion will be open for applications in the first half of 2023 alone, and a total of 10 business measures will be launched by the end of the year. Support for micro, small and medium-sized companies in the country will be in three directions - the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the new competitiveness program and the new program for scientific research, innovation and digitalization. We would like to remind you that both European programs of the Ministry were approved in a record short period of time. The "Competitiveness and Innovations in Enterprises" program 2021-2027 with a budget of BGN 3 billion was sent to Brussels on August 16 and approved by the European Commission on October 3.

Program "Research, innovation and digitization for intelligent transformation" 2021-2027 with a budget of BGN 2.14 billion - sent on October 26 and approved on December 5. The first procedures that will be launched under the new program for competitiveness and innovation in enterprises are "Development of innovations in small and medium-sized enterprises" for BGN 127 million in March and "Implementation of innovations in SMEs" for over BGN 293 million. in April. On the initiative of the Minister of Innovation and Growth and with the active assistance of the team of Deputy Prime Minister Pekanov, information was collected and summarized from other ministries (Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Education and Science) about the procedures under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan among them, which has been sent to all regional governors in the country.