bneGREEN: Ukraine's green revolution is in full swing

bneGREEN: Ukraine's green revolution is in full swing
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Energy Yaroslav Demchenkov has high hopes that Ukraine will achieve a sustainable future with a variety of key renewable energy sources.
By Dominic Culverwell in Berlin October 22, 2022

Ukraine looks towards a green future with post-war developments focusing on renewable energy sources, Ukraine Business News reported on October 21.

Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Energy Yaroslav Demchenkov has high hopes that Ukraine will achieve a sustainable future with a variety of key renewable energy sources alongside EU co-operation. The country was already home to heavy investment in renewable energy after former President Petro Poroshenko introduced extremely attractive green tariffs to attract investment into the sector and reduce Ukraine’s reliance on Russian gas.

“We have significant prospects for developing hydropower as manoeuvring capacities for balancing the system. Renewable energy development – wind and solar – must be accompanied by installing electricity storage. Bioenergy is also promising, particularly the construction of thermal power plants [TPPs] utilising biomass in the context of the gradual replacement of coal generation,” Demchenkov said.

In fact, Ukraine more than doubled the sales of green electricity last month compared to August, selling 356,000 MWh of electricity from renewable sources for UAH1.1bn ($29.7mn) with 327 contracts. In August, the State Enterprise Guaranteed Buyer sold 162,000 MWh for UAH406mn ($11mn) with 147 contracts.

Moreover, Ukraine will open its first two biomethane plants by the end of 2022 in the Chernihiv region and Vinnytsia region, according to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy. The Chernihiv plant has a capacity of 3mn cubic metres of fuel per year, while the Vinnytsia region has a much larger capacity of 10 mcm.

The EU has expressed interest in co-operating with Ukraine on its green journey, particularly now that the war-torn country has EU candidate status. One of the potentially mutually beneficial outcomes is for Ukraine to export biomethane to the bloc via pre-existing gas pipelines, which the union will buy for the same price as natural gas.

With Russians heavily targeting Ukraine’s infrastructure, damaging as much as 30% of energy facilities since October 10, this could be an auspicious opportunity for Ukraine to become a major environmental player, as bne IntelliNews predicted in July. Dimitar Bogov, from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), also believes rebuilding with a green agenda could be the most efficient method of reconstruction and sees potential interest after the war not only from Ukrainians but also from international partners to support such efforts.  

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