Svilosa Biomass Project

Audit Analysis

The Svilosa Biomass Project is a small-scale biomass-to-electricity project in Bulgaria under Gold Standard, but it carries significant integrity concerns: the 2020 verification report does not confirm VVB verification of additionality, the leakage deduction is 0% with contradictory justifications across documents, and eight material findings plus six corrective actions were raised in the verification report. The project delivered only about 50% of its pro-rata expected reductions for the monitoring period, and several key MRV parameters (FNRB, usage monitoring, buffer pool) are absent from the record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠The 2020 verification report (RINA, 2020-09-09) does not confirm VVB verification of additionality, contradicting the 2016 verification report which did confirm it — the more recent document is privileged, leaving additionality unverified.
• ⚠Eight material findings and six corrective actions were identified in the verification report, including incorrect electricity consumption values, wrong EFFF,CO2 values, and failure to use the Gold Standard monitoring report form.
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% while the verification report describes the justification as 'quantified' and the 2017 monitoring report describes it as 'deemed negligible' — a 0% deduction is inconsistent with a 'quantified' justification.
• ⚠The project verified only 34,493 tCO2 against a pro-rata expectation of approximately 69,271 tCO2 for the 10-month monitoring period, representing roughly 50% delivery.

Credit Vintages