Golemo Selo, Bulgaria. The chief engineer Venelin Ivanonv inside Bobov Dol coal Thermal Power Plant. The plant started operating in 1973, and it uses lignite from the nearby Bobov Dol mine. It employs 1400 workers.
Coal mining coming to and end in Bulgaria - Text by Eleonora Vio
The farewell from coal has long begun, as Europe set an urgent goal: climate neutrality by 2050. Coal phase-out will affect regions that are already among the poorest in Europe. To support them, the Commission created the Just Transition Fund (JTF): “The transformation - said the president Ursula von der Leyen - will only work if it is just, and if it works for all”.
In Bulgaria (where coal provides for 40% of the energy-mix) it might be already too late. In Pernik and Bobov Dol, the main coal district in the South-West, private companies shut-down underground mines, as coal became less and less profitable. With no plans or investments in sight, the local community was left to pay the price.
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Pernik, Bulgaria. A calendar of the amateur football team “Energetik”, is displayed on the wall of employees locker room in Republika TPP. The players are miners from Republika coal Thermal Power plant in Pernik. The plant supplies the city with hot water.
Pernik, Bulgaria. A recently exhausted open pit coal mine near Pernik. It stopped being operational at the beginning of 2020. The city of Pernik, is surrounded by coal mines. In 2015 was the most polluted European city.
Pernik, Bulgaria. Republika The chief engineer Chavdar Stojnev (center) and two workers in the control room of Republika coal Thermal Power plant in Pernik.
Golemo Selo, Bulgaria. Inside Bobov Dol coal Power plant TPP, a conveyor belt carries coal to the furnace.
Golemo Selo, Bulgaria. A stray dog at Bobov Dol coal Power plant. The plant was build in 1973 and operated since.
Golemo Selo, Bulgaria. Georgi Stefanov (65) visiting his parents at the cemetery. Stefanov’s entire life revolves around coal and Bobov Dol TPP: his father, a miner, moved here to build Bobov Dol power plant in the 70s. Stefanov himself is a retired miner who lived all his life in a house overlooking the plant.
Galabovo, Bulgaria. AES coal power plant (owned by a US company) and Brikel (owned by the Bulgarian oligarch Hristo Kovachki) overlook an artificial lake in the country major coal district of Stara Zagara, that provides roughly 40% of the national energy mix.
Znamenosets (East, Radnevo), Bulgaria. Jonko Rusev (52) sits in his patio. As a 12-years old in 1978, he was evicted with his family from his village, Malka Detelina, that is now part of the mine. Rusev still suffers from the eviction.
Bulgaria, Beli Bryag. The abandoned town hall in the village of Beli Bryag, (Eastern Bulgaria). The village sits few kilometers from the mines and TPPs complex of Maritsa east in Stara Zagora. The village is under eviction due to to the mine enlargement.
Bulgaria, Golemo Selo. A girl poses for a picture shot by her friend in a sun-flower field overlooking the Bobov Dol Power plant.
Bulgaria, Beli Bryag (East). Gelasco Gelascov (66) stands in front of a pile of documents, letters and legal cases against the state owned mining company. His village and his house are under eviction due to the mine expanding.
Pernik, Bulgaria. Galina Gerginova, founder of the environmental NGO “Breathe Pernik”, overlook an ashes disposal site of the coal fired thermal power plant in Pernik. She became an activist when, as she moved back from Sofia to Pernik, her 5 years old developed several respiratory problems.
Golemo Selo, Bulgaria. The mayor of Golemo Selo, Vasil Vasev, shows data collected by the regional authority for the environment, pointing out how the level of dioxin is particularly high.
Golemo Selo, Bulgaria. Georgi Stefanov (65) in his house's garden. Stefanov himself is a retired miner who lived all his life in this house overlooking the plant. His son struggle to find a job. He worries about the smoke coming form the plant and remembers that as a kid he used to drew chimneys, instead of trees as his school mates.