Western Balkans citizens legally resident in EU equal to 14% of region’s population
International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has stripped Belarus of the right to hold the World Championship this year
Alexei Navalny arrested on arrival as he returns home
LONG READ: The oligarch problem
MOSCOW BLOG: Has Navalny started a revolution?
Russia's biggest demonstrations since 2011 in protest against Navalny jailing
Opposition activist Navalny's call for mass protests a success as thousands take to the streets across Russia
Russia's National Welfare Fund accounts for almost 12% of GDP
NBU keeps key policy rate at 6%, worsens CPI outlook
Western Balkans and Ukraine urged to scrutinise coal subsidies
Oligarchs trying to derail Ukraine’s privatisation programme, warns the head of Ukraine’s State Property Fund
VISEGRAD BLOG: Central Europe's populists need a new strategy for Biden
OUTLOOK 2021 Lithuania
EBRD says loan to Estonia’s controversial Porto Franco project was never disbursed
Czech MPs pass protectionist food law in violation of EU rules
M&A in Central and Eastern Europe fell 16% in value in 2020, says CMS report
Hungarian vehicle makers hit by supply chain shortage
COVID-19 and Trump’s indifference helped human rights abusers in 2020
OUTLOOK 2021 Poland
OUTLOOK 2021 Slovakia
BRICKS & MORTAR: Rosier future beckons for CEE retailers after year of change and disruption
FDI inflows to CEE down 58% in 1H20 but rebound expected
Albania needs reforms for e-commerce to thrive, says World Bank
BALKAN BLOG: US approach to switch from quick-fix dealmaking to experience and cooperation
Corona-induced slump in global clothing sector dragged down Albania’s 2020 exports
Bosnia's exports in 2020 amounted to BAM10.5bn, trade deficit to BAM6.3bn
Retailers and restaurant owners threaten protests in Bulgaria if reopening is delayed
Bulgaria's Biodit first company to IPO on new BEAM market
Bulgaria’s government considers gradual easing of COVID-related restrictions
Spring lockdown caused spike in online transactions in Croatia
ING: Growth in the Balkans: from zero to hero again?
Labour demand down 28% y/y in Croatia in 2020
EBRD investments reach record €11bn in pandemic-struck 2020
OUTLOOK 2021 Moldova
Storming parliaments: New Europe's greatest hits
World Bank revises projection for Moldova’s 2020 GDP decline to 7.2%
Montenegrins say state administration is most corrupt institution
North Macedonia plans to cut personal income tax in IT sector to zero in 2023
Romania government to pursue “ambitious” timetable for justice reforms
Private finance mobilised by development banks up 9% to $175bn in 2019
OUTLOOK 2021 Romania
OUTLOOK 2021 Slovenia
Slovenia’s opposition files no-confidence motion against Jansa cabinet
Slovenia’s government to release funds to news agency STA after EU pressure
UK Moneyhub picks Slovenia for post-Brexit European base
D’S Damat franchise deals ‘show Turkey’s hard-pressed mall operators becoming their own tenants’
Turkey’s benchmark rate held as concerns over faltering recovery come to fore
Turkish lira breaches HSBC’s stop-loss, Turkey ETF signalling outflows
CAUCASUS BLOG : What can Biden offer the Caucasus and Stans, all but forgotten about by Trump?
Armenia ‘to extend life of its 1970s Metsamor nuclear power plant after 2026’
OUTLOOK 2021 Armenia
COMMENT: Record high debt levels will slow post-coronavirus recovery, threaten some countries' financial stability, says IIF
OUTLOOK 2021 Georgia
Iran’s Khamenei menaces private citizen Trump with image of aircraft shadowing blond golfer
Iran’s technology minister indicted for failing to properly implement internet censorship
No US move to rejoin Iran nuclear deal imminent, say Biden national security nominees
TEHRAN BLOG: Will Biden bet on a quick return to the Iran nuclear deal?
Central Asia vaccination plans underwhelm, but governments look unruffled
Fears of authoritarianism as Kyrgyz populist wins landslide and backing for ‘Khanstitution’
Mongolia's PM quits amid protests over treatment of mother with coronavirus and newborn baby
Mongolia's winter dzud set to be one of most extreme on record says Red Cross
Mongolian coal exports to China paralysed as Beijing demands virus testing of truck drivers
Mongolia fears economic damage as country faces up to its first local transmissions of coronavirus
OUTLOOK 2021 Tajikistan
OUTLOOK 2021 Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan: How the Grinch stole New Year
COMMENT: Uzbekistan is being transformed, but where are the democratic reforms?
Download the pdf version
More...
Ukraine expects to more than double its renewable capacity in 2019, according to the government's energy strategy, and it has already been investing heavily in the renewable sector. There have been 103 projects commissioned so far and another 112 are in the pipeline, attracted by a green tariff that guarantees producers a fixed price.
The combined capacity of new renewable-energy facilities launched during the third quarter of 2019 alone was 956 MW – a six-fold increase year-on-year, according to figures released in late September by Ukraine's National Commission for Energy, Housing, and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER). Of that, solar power capacity increased five-fold to 780 MW. Renewable energy accounted for 4.9% of Ukraine's overall energy production as of the end of the third quarter, but the plan is to increase its share to 25% by 2023.
Since 2015, Ukraine has installed nearly 4,000 MW of renewable-energy capacities at a cost of $3.7bn of investment, according to Kostyantyn Gura, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian State Agency of Energy Efficiency as cited by RFE/RL. To reach its goal of 25% Ukraine will need to invest another $30bn, according to Gura.
New government goes green
The share of renewables in the energy mix remains small and Ukraine is still heavily reliant on traditional energy sources, with coal continuing to play an outsized role thanks to the country’s paucity of cleaner energy resources like gas.
Ukraine imported 21mn tonnes of coal in 2018, putting it in tenth place on the International Energy Agency's (IEA's) list of top coal importers. Nuclear is also an important source of power accounting for 55.4% of electricity generated in 2018 – the second highest share in Europe after France (71.5%).
Ukraine is ranked 18th in the Climate Change Performance Index in 2019 out of 56 countries, making it a "high-performing country." However, part of this performance is simply due to the collapse of the economy in 2014, which depressed economic activity. Russia experienced the same effect in 2008 when its emissions halved following a big economic crisis that put factories out of work.
Focusing more narrowly on its renewable energy efforts, Ukraine does less well, ranked at 43, but that is still better than Russia at 60 and Belarus at 52, though worse than Poland at 40 and Kazakhstan at 39, reports RFE/RL.
Globally, the IEA is forecasting double-digit renewable power growth in 2019, driven by solar, which has seen its costs fall by 80% since 2010.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been promoting renewables and suggested reducing the green tariff, the so-called feed-in tariff (FIT), which is currently one of the highest in the world and has a major impact on investment decisions.
Encouragingly Zelenskiy appointed Oleksiy Orzhel as the new minister of energy and environmental protection. Orzhel used to serve as the head of the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy.
Chernobyl, solar and wind farms
One of the highest profile projects is a solar farm that has been built in the grounds of the Chernobyl nuclear power station site. The solar station began delivering electricity to Ukraine's energy grid on July 1 last year and 3,800 panels produce 1MW of power, enough energy to light about 2,000 apartments. The $1.2mn project is a joint venture between the Ukrainian company Rodina and Germany's Enerparc AG.
The companies plan to expand the capacity a hundred-fold to 100MW and the next 7MW extension has already been commissioned.
There has also been a slew of wind farm projects that bne IntelliNews has been tracking in its daily reporting on Ukraine. Amongst the most recent was a project announced in July by US-based General Electric (GE) and Ukraine's LongWing Energy S.C.A. to build the $150mn first phase of the Zaporizhzhya Wind Farm in the Zaporizhzhya region in southeast Ukraine. The 98 MW plant is expected to go online in 2020.
The US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) provided financing for what will be GE's fourth wind power project in Ukraine. And Danish-based Vestas, German-based NOTUS Energy, and Irish-based Altostrata were just some of the other companies to announce wind power projects in Ukraine in 2018-19.
Ukraine's own leading utilities operator DTEK, the country's largest private energy company that is owned by Rinat Akhmetov, is a key player in the country's renewable energy sector, accounting for nearly half of all such investments in 2018.
Register here to continue reading this article and 5 more for free or purchase 12 months full website access including the bne Magazine for just $250/year.
Register to read the bne monthly magazine for free:
Already registered
Password could contain only a-z0-9\+*?[^]$(){}=!<>|:-_ characters and have 8-20 symbols length.
Please complete your registration by confirming your email address.
A confirmation email has been sent to the email address you provided.
Forgotten password?
Email field can't be empty.
No user with this email address.
Access recovery request has expired, or you are using the wrong recovery token. Please, try again.
Access recover request has expired. Please, try again.
To continue viewing our content you need to complete the registration process.
Please look for an email that was sent to with the subject line "Confirmation bne IntelliNews access". This email will have instructions on how to complete registration process. Please check in your "Junk" folder in case this communication was misdirected in your email system.
If you have any questions please contact us at sales@intellinews.com
Sorry, but you have used all your free articles fro this month for bne IntelliNews. Subscribe to continue reading for only $119 per year.
Your subscription includes:
For the meantime we are also offering a free subscription to bne's digital weekly newspaper to subscribers to the online package.
Click here for more subscription options, including to the print version of our flagship monthly magazine:
More subscription options
Take a trial to our premium daily news service aimed at professional investors that covers the 30 countries of emerging Europe:
Get IntelliNews PRO
For any other enquiries about our products or corporate discounts please contact us at sales@intellinews.com
If you no longer wish to receive our emails, unsubscribe here.
Magazine annual electronic subscription
Magazine annual print subscription
Website & Archive annual subscription
Combined package: web access & magazine print annual subscription