Minister Popov on offshore wind power plants: Good idea in principle, but the serious perspective will be in the next decade

I want to reassure all fishermen and the tourism business that nothing will come at their expense. This is what the Minister of Environment and Water, Julian Popov, told BNT on the occasion of the first reading of the draft law on the construction of wind power plants in the marine areas.

The minister indicated that the planned construction of wind power plants was "a good idea in principle", but specified that he did not see a serious prospect for offshore wind energy before the end of this decade. According to Popov, there is a prospect most likely somewhere in the middle of the next decade, because the technology needs to be developed further and go through complex public consultations.

"I am sure of this, because even now the procedures for environmental assessments, the whole process of approving such huge engineering facilities is extremely difficult and long," commented Popov and stated that no one will allow one industry to be destroyed at the expense of another.

BTA recalls that a few days ago the fishermen from the Northern Black Sea coast announced that they do not agree with the bill introduced in this way. The industry united around this opinion during a meeting held in Varna on January 29. The fishermen said they would wait for the debates on the project and their next actions would depend on whether the sector's comments were taken into account. If this does not happen, they did not exclude the possibility of strike action.

Today in the parliament, deputies from "Vazrazhdane" met with representatives of the fishing industry. At a briefing, MP Kosta Stoyanov described the bill as "lobbyist" and insisted on its withdrawal.