Energy Transition of City of Burgas: Going Smart and Sustainable

Fifteen years ago, the Bulgarian town of Burgas was highly energy inefficient, leading to very high energy costs for local authorities and citizens, as well as poor living conditions and environmental inequality. Today, it is a different story. Burgas is a smart, energy-efficient city that implements the most up-to-date energy approaches and measures, which demonstrates the power of local authorities to drive sustainable change. Since 2007, energy efficiency has become one of the priorities of the Municipality. As a result, nowadays, the entire population of Burgas Municipality (232,000 people) has directly or indirectly benefitted from this decision. All public buildings have been retrofitted, providing better living conditions for inhabitants. Children, young people and teachers have benefitted from the retrofitting of 98% of kindergartens and schools, and local businesses have benefitted from investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. Burgas municipality is now leading the country when it comes to energy-efficient living, with more than 200 residential buildings retrofitted under the National EE Programme, and the number of hybrid and e-vehicles in the city is constantly rising. As a result of these activities, Burgas won the energy category of the 2020 edition of the Transformative Cities award. The Transformative Cities initiative inspires people to take action to transform their cities in areas of water, energy, food and housing.