Tvaldica is a quiet town in the Sliven Oblast of Bulgaria, where textiles and wood processing have been the main industries for many years. On an autumn morning, a vacant land in the suburban industrial park was particularly lively - Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev, Energy Minister Eva Petrova, Innovation and Digital Transformation Minister Ivan Vasilev, along with investors and Tesla representatives, waved their first shovel.

This day has been written into Bulgaria's energy history: the country's first battery storage project in cooperation with Tesla officially broke ground. For this small town, what is about to emerge is not just a power station, but more like an electricity bank - storing surplus electricity during the day and retrieving it when electricity is scarce.

Three parties work together to achieve success

The first phase of the construction project in Tewaldica is a 5-hour energy storage system with an installed capacity of 300MWh, equipped with 80 Tesla Megapack 2XL energy storage units and 20 Tesla transformers. It is planned to be put into commercial operation in the second quarter of 2027. In a fully charged state, the stored electricity can meet the long-term electricity demand of the mayor of Tvaldica.

This is also the first project among the three energy storage sites planned in collaboration between Asarel Trade, Power Profit, and Tesla. The total energy storage capacity of the three projects exceeds 2300MWh, with a total investment of over 350 million euros.

Looking at Tesla's European map, the significance of this project goes beyond its scale. Tesla's 25 gigawatt hour NatPower agreement with the UK and the approximately 3 gigawatt hour Zhero agreement in Italy are currently framework agreements; Tvaldica is a medium-sized project, but it is a tangible project that is built with real money and real weapons.

Energy storage drives the energy landscape

Why is energy storage important? As the installed capacity of renewable energy continues to grow, the demand for flexible resources in the power system is rapidly increasing due to the dependent nature of wind and solar power. Battery energy storage can absorb excess electricity generation and replenish excess electricity generation, enhancing grid resilience, optimizing power supply and demand balance, improving system regulation flexibility, and creating conditions for the downward trend of electricity prices.

Radf made a weighty judgment in his groundbreaking speech: whoever possesses stable and sustainable energy storage construction capabilities holds the key to the future of the energy industry. He also mentioned that in terms of the proportion of battery energy storage capacity relative to the size of the country's power system, Bulgaria has become one of the top in Europe, and modern energy storage infrastructure has become a prerequisite for economic growth.

Energy Minister Eva Petrova further revealed that Bulgaria has achieved a total scale of over 6GW of energy storage projects in less than a year and a half. These energy storage resources provide solid support for regional energy supply security during critical periods such as the summer electricity peak. She stated that the Ministry of Energy will continue to improve the regulatory policies for energy storage, consolidate the country's strategic advantages in the energy storage field, and simultaneously promote the development of new power sources, pumped storage and other projects, in order to continuously create an investment environment friendly to overseas capital and technological innovation.keywords:New energy information network

Starting from an empty land in Sliven Oblast, Bulgaria is trying to turn a geographical crossroads into a hub node for energy. And this shovel of soil from Tverdica is the starting point.Editor/Yang Meiling