Atlas Global Energy, a company with Turkish investments, plans to build new wind energy facilities in Zhytomyr region, Vitaliy Bunechko, head of the Zhytomyr Regional Military Administration, said following a meeting on Monday with Onur Kopcuoglu, the company’s technical director in Ukraine.
“We discussed the prospects for cooperation and project implementation in the region. We are confident that the new wind farm project will be another example of our fruitful cooperation and will open up new prospects for Ukraine’s energy independence,” he wrote on Facebook.
Bunechko noted that Zhytomyr region already has alternative energy projects (SPPs, hydroelectric power plants, and biogas plants) with a total installed capacity of more than 240 MW, and about 60% of boiler houses in the region run on alternative fuels.
He called the construction of wind power plants “a logical development of this track.”
Bunechko also noted that even before the full-scale invasion, the region was recognized by the international Doing Business rating as the best region in Ukraine for doing business, and none of the major investors left during the war.
“On the contrary, international companies are investing additional funds in the development of their own production in our region. We are now paying special attention to the development of alternative and distributed energy. For us, this is not only an environmental agenda, but also a wartime challenge. After all, this configuration of the power system is more resistant to enemy attacks,” explained the head of the UGA.
Atlas Global Energy’s website states that it is a renewable energy development company that has been operating in Ukraine since 2016 with a portfolio of more than 300 MW of wind and photovoltaic projects. In particular, it is reported about a 60 MW wind farm in Lviv region and a 50 MW solar power plant in Kherson region.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) on January 21 will consider the applications of Nebras Power Investment Management B.V. (the Netherlands), a member of the Qatar group Nebras, for the acquisition of 50% and more in six companies operating solar and wind power plants of businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky and his partners.
According to the committee’s agenda, the matter concerns providing 50% in Volyn West Wind-1 LLC, Volyn West Wind-2 LLC, as well as over 50% in Free Energy Henichesk LLC, Scythia-Solar-1 LLC, Scythia-Solar-2 LLC and Port Solar LLC.
The committee will also consider the issue of granting permission to Cyprus-based Enox Trading Limited and Serhiy Yevtushenko to establish Volyn Wind Cyprus Limited.
According to data on UDP Renewables’ website, SES Free Energy (18.3 MW) began generating electricity in November 2018, Scythia-Solar-1 (13 MW) in March 2019, Scythia-Solar-2 (33 MW) in July 2019, Port Solar (8.4 MW) in October 2019.
The declared capacity of two phases of Volyn West Wind is 57 MW and 56.8 MW.
UDP Renewables is an investment and development company in the renewable energy industry. The strategic investor in UDP Renewables is Vasyl Khmelnitsky’s holding company UFuture.
The Ukrainian Wind Energy Association (UWEA) and the European-Ukrainian Energy Agency (EUEA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ukrainian government regarding the improvement of conditions of support of renewable energy producers, UWEA Board Chairman Andriy Konechenkov has said.
“The memorandum was signed on the basis of voluntary restructuring,” Konechenkov said after signing.
At the same time, according to him, the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy (UARE), which participated in the negotiations, refused to sign the memorandum because of disagreement with the government’s position regarding the further development of solar energy, in particular, the termination of the existing system for supporting SES in the form of feed-in tariffs on July 31, 2020.
“Premier Shmyhal gave the UARE another day to talk with members of the association,” Konechenkov said.
“I turned to the prime minister with a proposal to meet the challenges of solar generation, but he, as well as the MPs from the Rada energy committee who were present during the talks, said that this is the maximum that we managed to agree with the majority of the MPs and the relevant ministries. This is the option for the memorandum,” Konechenkov said.
At the same time, he said that, in his opinion, there will be no stopping of solar projects due to the termination of the feed-in tariffs for them, since all [companies] will go to green auctions.
