Ukraine and Norway are negotiating about investments in renewable energy projects for EUR300-400 million, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said. “We are starting work with a number of Norwegian companies that come to build relations in renewable energy. The matter concerns serious investment of EUR 300-400 million,” the minister said at a joint press conference with the Norwegian foreign minister in Kyiv.
According to Klimkin, the matter concerns projects, in particular, related to solar energy.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a new program USELF III (Ukraine Sustainable Energy Lending Facility) worth EUR 250 million to support private projects in renewable energy in Ukraine. EBRD Senior Adviser for External Relations Anton Usov told Interfax-Ukraine the board of directors made the corresponding decision at a meeting on July 18. The bank said it has been supporting the development of renewable energy in Ukraine within the framework of the USELF program since 2009, but it expires on June 30, 2018, and USELF III should replace it.
During the first program, the bank financed projects for total of more than EUR 100 million to fund projects with a total capacity of over 150 MW of various renewable energy technologies, the document says. The EBRD notes that as a result of the development of the renewable energy sector, interest from large international developers is growing, and they are ready to implement larger projects in the field of renewable energy.
The bank also says that despite the significant growth of the sector in Ukraine, its share remains insignificant at 1.5%, while the National Action Plan for Renewable Energy envisages the increase of this share to 11% by 2020.
New generating facilities on renewable energy sources with a total installed capacity of 109.6 MW were put into operation in Ukraine in April-June 2018, which is 1.7 times more than in the same period in 2017, the press service of the National Commission on Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation has stated. “The objects of wind power plants and solar power plants account for 99% of the commissioned facilities,” the report said.
According to the commission, in the second quarter a wind power plant with a capacity of 3.2 MW, a solar plant with a total capacity of 106.1 MW, and a biogas plant with a capacity of 0.3 MW were commissioned.
Thus, as of June 27 Ukraine had wind power plants with a total installed capacity of 515.4 MW, solar plants of 947.5 MW, biomass stations of 43.8 MW, biogas plants of 41 MW, and hydro power plants of 95.6 MW.
The total installed capacity of renewable energy facilities is 1.643 GW (excluding the annexed Crimea, where previously renewable energy facilities with a total capacity of 494.9 MW were launched).
At present the share of renewable energy in electricity production in Ukraine is 1.9%, the share in the total cost of electricity is 8.5%.
