Bulgaria’s Ministry of Energy has approved grant funding for 31 battery energy storage system (BESS) projects totaling more than 4 GWh, under the second round of the National Renewable Energy Storage Infrastructure (RESTORE 2) program, part of the country’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).
The selected projects will receive BGN 228.9 million (USD 137.1 million / EUR 117 million) in non-repayable grant support. The Ministry said the funding decision follows strong market interest, with 93 project proposals submitted under the call.
Due to limited financial resources, 30 additional projects from 27 companies, requesting around BGN 100 million, have been placed on a reserve list and may be supported if further funding becomes available. According to the Association for Production, Storage and Trading of Electricity (APSTE), total grant funding requested across all submitted projects amounted to approximately BGN 750 million, highlighting the scale of interest in Bulgaria’s emerging energy storage sector. The average grant requested per project is less than EUR 36,000 per MWh.
The RESTORE 2 procedure targeted projects with at least 1.9 GWh of usable energy capacity at the electricity grid level, with a total announced budget of BGN 230.7 million. The 31 approved projects, launched by 25 companies, will be distributed across multiple locations in Bulgaria and connected either to the national electricity transmission network operated by ESO EAD or to electricity distribution networks. The systems must include a direct optical connection to ESO EAD’s telecommunications network.
All supported battery energy storage facilities are required to be commissioned by July 31, 2026.
Bulgaria currently has around 1.5 GWh of battery storage capacity in operation, while an additional 10 GWh is expected to come online by March 2026. The under-construction capacity was awarded under the initial RESTORE call, which made available approximately BGN 1.15 billion in EU-backed grant funding.
The announcement comes amid continued growth in Europe’s energy storage market. According to SolarPower Europe’s European Market Outlook for Battery Storage 2025–2029, Europe installed 21.9 GWh of battery energy storage systems in 2024, marking the eleventh consecutive year of record installations and increasing total installed capacity to 61.1 GWh. However, year-on-year growth slowed to 15%, following three years of capacity doubling.
At the global level, BloombergNEF forecasts that energy storage capacity additions will grow by 35% in 2025, reaching 94 GW or 247 GWh. It expects a compound annual growth rate of 14.7% between 2025 and 2035, with annual additions rising to 220 GW or 972 GWh by 2035, driven primarily by large-scale utility projects in established and emerging markets.
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