Ukraine has ambitious plans for the development of the alternative sources of energy. At the same time, the real pace of changes is very slow. The best development dynamics is demonstrated by solar energy sector due to its affordability and support by the state.
Ukraine develops alternative energy sector very slowly
Maintaining the current level of oil and gas consumption, we’ll exhaust its reserves in 50 years. Taking this into account EU countries are actively introducing alternative energy sources – its share will constitute up to 20% of electric energy production by 2020 and 50% by 2030. Ukrainian plans are more modest: according to the Energy Strategy of Ukraine 2035, the share of renewable energy sources in the total volume of produced electric energy should constitute 7% by 2020 and over 13% by 2025.
The dynamics of alternative energy sources development in Ukraine remains positive several years in a row – in 2017 output of newly introduced energy producing facilities reached 257 MW which is 2,1 times higher than last year. Thus, in 2017 the general output of the renewable energy sources in Ukraine increased by 23% and reached 1375 MW.
Solar energy is the most rapidly developing sector of Ukrainian renewable energy market
The total output of solar power stations in Ukraine amounted to 742 MW in 2017 which is 211 MW more than in 2016. Due to a large number of sunny days as well as moderate temperatures solar power stations are operating reach maximum performance. The development of alternative energy market also stimulates the application of high green tariff – for industrial solar power stations constructed in 2017-2019 it amounts to 15 Euro cents, while for HH level power stations it amounts to 18 Euro cents. The aforementioned, as well as relative affordability of such stations, explains their relatively short payoff period – around 5-8 years.
Wind energy sector growth is driven by large-scale business
Wind energy sector is growing much slower than that of solar – during last year the output capacity of Ukrainian wind power stations increased by 27 MW having reached 465 MW in total. It’s explained by the fact that the price of wind-generated energy is several times higher than of that generated by solar power stations. Wind power stations are more complicated to install and require special maintenance. Furthermore, wind power sector is more regulated than the solar energy sector. That’s why this market is dominated by large companies while small-scale investors are underrepresented.
