Owners of small photovoltaic plants threaten with civil disobedience

The small photovoltaic plants threatened with civil disobedience if the purchase price of their green energy did not rise. They threatened with traffic blockades and demanded the resignations of the energy minister and the head of the energy regulator. The Minister of Energy replied that over-subsidization was being used in the construction of family renewable energy plants, which led to an increase in the price of electricity produced by them.

Owners of small photovoltaic power plants say they are preparing protests in different parts of the country every day.

The first protests will begin after the European Parliament elections so they do not get politicized, they added.

Tihomir Toshev, owner of renewable energy power station: We plan to close roads that lead to borders, major roads if we are not heard.

They threatened to set fire to a solar power plant.

They continue to insist on a meeting with the Prime Minister.

The representatives of the industry said the funding they used under the Rural Programme was neither state aid nor EU subsidies and demanded an increase in the purchase price of the electricity generated by them. They accused the Energy Minister and the head of the energy regulator that they mistakenly aligned them with the large "green" power plants built with EU funds and demanded their resignations.

The demands for resignation are unfounded, Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said.

Temenuzhka Petkova - Minister of Energy: The price of electricity is rising from such cases where there is over-subsidization, as is the case with the so-called small renewable energy sources, which received funding from the State Fund "Agriculture", then received double financing through a preferential price of the electricity produced by them.