Kozloduy NPP may be the most suitable place for the development of artificial intelligence and data centers. This was stated by Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov. The topic became relevant due to the announced intentions in the USA to power data centers with nuclear energy.
According to Zhecho Stankov, the proposal will be relevant because the principle of producing electricity where it is needed will be respected:
"Kozloduy NPP" and the area around it is the most suitable place for the development of artificial intelligence and data centers. From the point of view of security of supply and overall security. For this reason, we will start a roadshow to companies so that the data center can be built on Bulgarian territory.
The minister recalled that in addition to the two thousand megawatts of the existing ones, there will be two more - also 2,000 megawatts according to the plan. At the moment, there is not much information on how the ministry will look for investors in data centers. Given that exactly five years ago, "Microsoft" chose Greece, not Bulgaria, for its data center.
"Microsoft" even wants to use energy from the new nuclear fusion technology. And the plans of billionaire Elon Musk include a data center that will consume energy equal to only one of our Kozloduy NPP units.
Across the world, brief statistics show that IT companies have planned the use of at least 60 small modular reactors, mainly in India and the USA. But Lyubo Minchev, one of the founders of the IT company "Telelink", explains that Europe should not go down the path of using fossil fuels for data centers, and then reach modular reactors:
"I do not think that small modular reactors will be allowed near our cities, near our data centers. However, the forecast is that electricity consumption from data centers will reach 10% of the world's energy. This forecast may change after the "DeepSeek" model is released. But there will be a growing demand for capacity. Therefore, the questions of the economic benefit of building solutions closer to enterprises are on the agenda. And we will try to create such a solution for a data center in our country, which will adhere to all the norms of decarbonization by 2030".