We continued our round table events on the 14th of March in the town of Simitli and on the 23rd in the town of Bansko.
The opportunity to have a test drive of an electric vehicle has already proved to be one of the biggest selling points of our events. This was again demonstrated in Simitly by people arriving the event early and expressing great willingness to have a ride on the BMW i3, provided by Martin Zaimov, the chairman of BAEPS and the moderator for these events.
SImitli is a town which has already committed to becoming eco-friendly. The town has recently launched a project for the installation of solar thermal panels at 8 kindergartens and 3 other social institutions within the municipality. Their commitment was also demonstrated by many of the employees from the town administration who were present at the round table and were visibly engaged in the topic. They gladly shared with us that the town has secured EU funding for the procurement of two electric vehicles.
Currently, to the best of our knowledge, there aren’t any charging stations in the town of Simitli thus our project is a great complementary to their efforts. On top of that, the construction of lot 3.2 of Struma Motorway (which will likely be passing right through the town) will eventually cause demand for charging infrastructure in Simitli and bring further opportunities for the development of electric mobility. The attendees were interested to hear more about the construction of lot 3.2 and the opportunities its completion would bring from Atanas Pashaliev, local entrepreneur and chairman of association “Renewable energy sources cluster”.
The round table in Bansko that followed a few days later was also of great interest to local stakeholders. The town administration explicitly sent a representative to attend our presntation – Mrs Ruzha Ruskova – and a few local politicians – Lyubomir Mutafchiev, Georgi Dumanov and Boris Vangelov – also turned up.
They expressed their commitment to make Bansko a greener and more eco-friendly place and stated they have been looking for ways to further accelerate this transformation.
Yulia Lyubenova, the chairman of association “Unique Bansko”, was happy to share an idea of hers. The municipality should start using electric buses or minibuses for guided tours to National Park Pirin, the town of Dobrinishte and other local landmarks. Transportation services by electric vehicles could also be extended to seasonal workers in Bansko who tend to lodge in the neighbouring towns.
Local entrepreneurs and hotel owners believe that the installation of a charging station within their premises would likely be seen as an improvement to the overall quality of the service they provide.
The whole meeting was very conductive for our common goal of greener and brighter future of the region. Mrs Ruzha Ruskova even mentioned the possibility for the Bansko manucipality and the project’s Lead Beneficiary – SPEE-BG – to cooperate on future projects.