The year 2022 turned out to be an exceptionally "sunny" year for photovoltaic plants. Annual electricity production from the sun reaches an annual output of 1,656 GWh. The growth is an increase of 15.9% compared to the previous year.
In July alone, electricity generation from solar capacity recorded a new monthly record of more than 200 GWh, the Institute of Energy Management noted in a report.
Experts put the country's 2022 electricity production at 49,948 GWh, or a 6.5% year-on-year growth, according to ENTSO-E's operational data.
The 2021 trend of significant growth (+22.9% ) in electricity from lignite is maintained. During the colder months of the year (January, February, March, November and December), electricity generation from this indigenous resource exceeds 2 000 GWh (on a monthly basis). Definitely, the dominance of lignite in 2022 is unchallenged and with an increased share in total electricity generation from 40.3% (2021) to 46.5% (2022).
In contrast to lignite, electricity from other fossil fuels is in decline.
Electricity generation from hard coal has declined by nearly 4%, while supply tensions in gas markets and high prices since the first quarter of the year have squeezed gas-fired generation by 5.36% in 2022.
A total of 26,374 GWh was generated from fossil fuels, an increase of 18.7% from 2021 and 54.2% from 2020.
Electricity generation from nuclear remains at the level of the previous year (16 461 GWh ).
The year turned out to be one of the weaker ones for hydropower. Various factors had an adverse impact - regulatory, maintenance and capacity failures. Total hydro generation was down 26% from 2021, reaching 3,769 GWh .
Wind power generation amounted to 1,402 GWh or a marginal increase of 1%.
Production from biomass amounts to 250.3 GWh, a level close to that of last year's reference period, and from waste 33.8 GWh (+21%).
Bulgaria's electricity imports are down 21.3% compared to 2021. Electricity exports increased by 40.2% compared to the previous year.