Bulgaria has applied to the EU Modernisation Fund investment plan for the deployment of nine heavy-vehicle hydrogen refuelling stations by 2028. The EU Modernisation Fund (EMF) is a €25 billion fund that was established by the European Commission in 2020 to support 10 lower-income EU Member States in their transition to climate neutrality.
Bulgaria’s project, which also involves the construction of 300 grid-connected electric vehicle (EV) charge points ranging from slow to hyper fast charging, has an estimated budget of €93 million ($100.4 million). The first tranche of €40 million is expected to be disbursed by the Modernisation Fund by the end of 2023. The planned green hydrogen refuelling stations will be rolled out in Sofia, Varna and Burgas, as well as cities near the motorways linking Bulgaria with Romania, Greece, Serbia, North Macedonia and Turkey. The Hydrogen Valley Project in Stara Zagora, south-central Bulgaria, will also include a refuelling station.
The EU has developed a regulation for the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure (AFIR), which stipulates that hydrogen refuelling stations serving both cars and trucks must be deployed from 2030 onwards at every 200 km along the TEN-T core network of European roads.
Public transport operators will be prioritised as network users, and transportation and logistics companies are also major potential users. The project is also crucial to raise the uptake of EVs by private users, given the ageing cars on Bulgaria’s roads today. Starting from the third year after deployment, about 40-45% of the capacity of the charging infrastructure is expected to be used, and its capacity should be used in full by 2030 or 2032. ESO’s analysis projects the number of EVs in Bulgaria to reach 200,000 by 2030, with 600,000 MWh of electricity per year needed to cover their consumption needs.