How Bulgaria become a global leader in battery storage and what this means for the country's grid and energy market?

Powerhouse in southeastern Europe: Bulgaria has one of the world's highest ratios of battery storage to total power capacity in the world. Pictured here: a solar park with storage batteries in Maglizh, Bulgaria Image: Tsvetelina Belutova/Capital

The international energy sector currently has a curious case study in an unlikely place: Bulgaria , a country in southeastern Europe with a population of just 6.4 million, now has one of the world's highest ratios of battery storage to total power capacity, outpacing markets like California, Germany and China .

In less than two years, Bulgaria's battery storage capacity has gone from zero to making up nearly a quarter of the country's total installed power capacity, fueled by EU funding and private capital worth close to €3 billion ($3.4 billion), according to calculations by Bulgaria's leading business publication Capital .

Bulgaria was lucky enough to escape the worst of the heatwaves and droughts that forced a cut in nuclear and hydro output in Hungary and Romania this summer.

During that period, it turned its batteries into a key grid stabilizer for neighboring markets and profited by storing cheap solar power and selling it in the evening when prices spike.

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