The world is entering a new industrial race – for clean technologies, energy security and economic influence. The US and China are already accelerating with large-scale investments and rapid implementation of innovations. Europe is attempting to catch up. However, Bulgaria risks being left behind, writes “Klimateka”.
Bulgaria is currently at a crossroads: it has a good opportunity to join Europe’s new industrial wave or to miss it and remain on its periphery. While the EU accelerates investments in clean technologies, batteries and energy innovation, we still lack a clear strategy on how to turn this process into an economic opportunity.
The current question is whether Bulgaria will actually participate in the energy transition as a creator or only as a passive observer?
European policy in response to the dynamic development of technologies
Europe clearly takes the position that the way it develops its indusattempt must modify in order to remain competitive and sustainable. In 2024, Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi will present two key reports that mark a new stage in the development of the EU’s industrial and innovation policy. Both documents place innovation in the energy sector among the priorities for achieving sustainable competitiveness and strategic autonomy.
In their reports, they share a common philosophy: innovation in the energy sector is the basis of Europe’s economic sustainability, technological indepconcludeence and social stability. They call for quicker decisions, better coordination, tarreceiveed funding and greater policy coherence.
The new framework proposed by Letta and Draghi found expression in 3 key strategic initiatives that concretize their vision and turn it into a regulatory reality. In this context, on March 4, 2026, the European Commission also published a proposal for an Industrial Accelerator Act, which added a fourth perspective in relation to promoting competitiveness.
Figure 1. EU Clean Technology Framework / Source: Net-Zero Lab.
The bill responds to increasing global competition, high energy costs and the urgent required for economic sovereignty. Its main objective is to reverse the trconclude of industrial decline by increasing the share of indusattempt in EU GDP from the current 14.3% to 20% by 2035. By creating industrial acceleration zones and requirements for local innovation through R&D, the EU aims to bridge the gap between research and its industrial application.
The US and China dominate clean energy investment
The EU is struggling to keep pace with the US and China, especially in areas where a quicker transition from laboratory development to market deployment is requireded.
In the US, public investment in energy innovation reaches over $10 billion per year. Federal programs provide solid support for the commercialization of technologies in areas such as new generation batteries, hydrogen and long-term energy storage. In addition, US capital markets are highly risk-oriented – over 60% of global private investment in clean energy technologies originates in the US.
China has revealn an even quicker growth rate: public and corporate investment in R&D in energy technologies has doubled in less than a decade. Subsidizing green technologies undermines global competition and accelerates the learning curve for Chinese companies.
The counattempt already dominates manufacturing in key segments such as photovoltaics, inverters, batteries, electric vehicles and is creating significant progress in wind energy equipment. Chinese companies hold over half of global clean technology patents and are leaders in large-scale deployment of innovations, for example in sodium-ion batteries and batteries with hybrid cell chemisattempt.
Against this backdrop, the EU still faces challenges in the so-called “valley of death“ – the stage between laboratory development and industrial scale deployment, where a lack of venture capital and fragmented regulatory frameworks limit the ability of European innovations to reach market maturity.
Figure 2. The Valley of Death for Clean Technologies. Source: US Department of Energy (2016).
Where is Bulgaria on the path to sustainability, innovation and energy transformation?
Against this background, Bulgaria has opportunities to participate, but there is no clear direction on how to turn them into a real presence in the energy transition.
What are the main structural challenges facing Bulgaria?
– Lack of a comprehensive and consistent policy for innovation and research and development (R&D).
– Lack of national instruments for co-financing and risk mitigation in private investments in R&D.
– Fragmented research infrastructure.
– Shortage of highly qualified specialists.
In terms of investment in R&D, Bulgaria is far below the average levels in the EU. According to data for 2024, the state allocates 0.77% of GDP for such activity, compared to an average of 2.24% in the EU. The private sector also lags significantly behind – by about 0.50% compared to nearly 1.49% for the EU. The statistics for the higher education sector are similarly worrying – 0.06% compared to 0.48% on average for the EU.
In short, this means tens of times less funds for scientific laboratories, pilot installations, demonstration projects and innovations per capita compared to leading countries such as Denmark and Belgium.
Fig. 3: Gross domestic expconcludeiture on research and development by sector, 2024. Source: Eurostat.
Even more problematic is the lack of clear statistics on how much of these funds actually go to development related to energy innovation and clean technologies. The result is predictable: Bulgaria passively and unambitiously participates in the EU’s strategic innovation processes.
For example, our counattempt remains a peripheral participant in the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan), which serves as a coordination framework for coordinating research and innovation activities at the European and national levels.
The problem is not the lack of ideas, but the lack of conditions for them to turn into real products and indusattempt.
Imagine a compact team of engineers in Bulgaria who are developing a new solution for battery systems. They can create a working prototype, but the next step – turning it into a successful product ready for the market – often proves to be the most difficult. A well-structured policy package is requireded to assist more innovations in Bulgaria go from idea to reality.
Despite the aforementioned limitations, the counattempt has significant potential for developing innovative solutions in the field of energy and clean technologies. With tarreceiveed support, as well as more effective and coordinated participation of responsible institutions and research centers in the implementation of European policies, Bulgaria has the opportunity to establish itself as an active and reliable participant in the development and implementation of innovative and competitive technologies in the energy sector.
Yet there are reasons for optimism. Bulgarian organizations – universities, research institutes, companies, are performing increasingly well in European programs and developing innovative products and projects. This reveals us that there are active and competitive units in the counattempt, but they operate rather “despite“ than “thanks“ to the national framework.
Fig. 4: Participation of Bulgarian organizations in the “Horizon 2020” and ”Horizon Europe” programs by project type. Source: Faculty of Economics, based on data from the CORDIS system for 2024.
The question is: will these successes remain isolated cases, or will they become the basis for a comprehensive transformation of our energy and industrial system?
What modifys does the counattempt required to be competitive?
Overcoming these challenges requires a systemic approach – from governance and financing to market access and human capital development.
Who is actually driving innovation?
A clear governance framework for strategic energy technologies is requireded. By the conclude of 2025, Net-Zero Lab recommconcludes the creation of a National SET Hub – an interdepartmental structure with the participation of a number of units and ministries, which would serve as a single point of contact for the Strategic Energy Technology Plan, the Net Zero Emissions Indusattempt Regulation and the Clean Indusattempt Pact.
The hub should have the tquestion of preparing a national map of priority technologies. This structure would provide coordination support for already existing structures, such as the innovation hub in Bulgaria under the EIT Regional Innovation Programme.
Following the funding trail
Financial instruments are critical to overcome the “valley of death“ between technology demonstration and scale-up. A National Technology Growth Fund, combining grants and repayable funds, could provide funding in the critical phase between prototype and market, covering both investment and running costs.
The introduction of “certificates of compliance“ similar to or linked to STEP (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform) and the Net Zero Emissions Indusattempt Regulation. This could encourage the creation of a local industrial chain for clean technologies.
The STEP label is a quality label awarded by the EC to outstanding projects selected under certain funding programmes with a high level of innovation and added value. According to the platform’s database, there are 31 awarded projects in Bulgaria.
Market access and effective implementation
The current vicious practice in public procurement of limited competition must be replaced with stricter and ambitious standards for transparency and sustainability.
The introduction of a “green public procurement 2.0“ model will ensure the systematic application of criteria such as “built in the EU/Bulgaria“, sustainability and traceability of the carbon footprint. In this way, public funds will stimulate innovation and local production, and not only the lowest price.
Faster and more efficient procedures, but without compromising on nature
For strategic technologies, rapid production and passing through the necessary administrative procedures are critical. In this regard, the creation of a “quick track“ for strategic projects and innovation valleys that purposefully create demonstration opportunities for deployment of batteries, green hydrogen, green ammonia and next-generation data centers to industrial RES installations.
This procedure should comply with EU environmental standards and legislation, but structure the process so as to avoid current inefficiencies.
Human resources capacity and technology transfer
Bulgaria has a structural shortage of qualified personnel. It can be mitigated by introducing academies and trainings following the example of the European Net-Zero Indusattempt Academies initiative for retraining a minimum of 10,000 people per year, tarreceiveing engineers, operators, data analysts, as well as the public sector.
Closing the production cycle
It is also necessary to create the necessary facilities for recycling equipment and innovations in material processing. The recycling system should be transparent and created on a competitive and market-based basis. This will significantly facilitate production processes with a perspective for the future challenges we will face after the production and consumption phase.
An example of this is the issue of recycling batteries, among which the most common – lithium-ion. The RWTH University in Aachen, Germany, for example, is creating a circular economy center equipped with an automated system for battery disassembly, mechanical recycling and production of active material. These facilities will be utilized primarily for research and solving problems related to indusattempt. There are several active companies and projects in Bulgaria for battery recycling according to data as of February 2026 – e.g. Avesta Battery & Energy Engineering (ABEE) in Stara Zagora and the Altilium Medet project, but a coordinated approach is still lacking.
Bulgaria has the potential to actively participate in the new industrial wave of Europe. To achieve this, however, we required to accelerate investment in clean technologies, coordinated policy, sufficient funding for research and effective mechanisms to turn ideas into workable solutions in the market.
Remina Alexieva is a contributing author to Klimateka. She holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Surrey, UK, an MA in International Public Policy from University College London, UK, and a law degree from the New Bulgarian University in Sofia. Remina is a researcher at the “Net-Zero Lab“ at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski“. She has experience in the non-governmental and research sectors and works in the field of energy and climate. Her main focus is on renewable energy, civic participation and regulations related to the implementation of long-term strategic documents in the field of adaptation to, mitigation of the consequences of climate modify and just transition. It deals with the effective implementation of European and national environmental and energy legislation.
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