The development of alternative energy sources in Ukraine is reaching a new level. According to the report of the Association of Alternative Fuels and Energy Market Participants of Ukraine (APEU), renewable energy industry expanded significantly between September 2010 and September 2011 due to launching of electricity generation facilities with total capacity of more than 96 MW and heat plants with total capacity of over 42 MW.
Among other developments, the report’s authors note that the solar energy market has seen increased interest on the part of international engineering companies from Israel, Spain, Germany and the US. As a result, several mid-size solar power plants are currently being constructed in the country. As of September 2011, the total installed solar power capacity in Ukraine is about 67.6 MW.
Launch of the first stage of the Novoazovsky wind farm park on the Azov Sea shore this July was a key event in the wind energy sector this year. The wind farm was launched this July; its first stage capacity is 25 MW, while the final combined capacity will be 107.5 MW. Plans to build wind farms in Ukraine were also announced by Ukrainian company Eco-Optima that is going to construct wind park with power capacity of approximately 5 MW in the western Ukraine and Japanese firm Toshiba that targets wind farm with first-stage capacity of 6 MW in the Crimea. Total capacity of all wind farms that are now operating in Ukraine is about 110 MW.
Hydro power development is quite successful, too. A dozen companies, some of them international, declared their intention to start building small hydroelectric power plants in Ukraine in the past year. In the same period, 14 new small hydropower facilities with total capacity of 3 MW were launched in the country. According to the APEU’s data, 64 small hydro power plants with total capacity of over 104 MW are already operating in Ukraine.
Despite some issues with the raw materials supply in mid-year, solid biofuels producers’ performance gives good reasons for joy, the APEU report reads. Fuel briquettes and pellets production capacity increased by 270,000 tons, having reached 950,000 tons per year. According to the APEU-commissioned research, vegetable oil extraction plants made the greatest contribution to this dynamic as they installed sunflower husk granulation and briquetting facilities with total capacity of 250,000 tons per year. The association’s data also say that over 30 large biomass (waste wood and agricultural waste) heat generation projects with total capacity of 42 MW were finished in Ukraine in the past year, as well as 4 biofuel power plants with combined capacity of 3 MW. Total biomass heat generation capacity in Ukraine is now about 64 MW, while biomass power generation capacity is about 4 MW.
The APEU’s experts also noted increasing activity in the engine biofuels industry. The report says that the Mariupol oil refinery owner has launched the project to produce gasoline which is more than 40 percent biofuel-derived and differs from traditional gasoline in its improved environmental and performance indicators. Although the refinery’s capacity does not allow it to produce more than 5,000 tons of biofuels per year, it is a good start nonetheless, indicating the emergence of positive trends in this segment, the analysts say.
“Ukraine is currently closely watched by most international actors of the renewable energy market. Projects that were completed over the past year have allowed Ukraine to become a full member of the international renewable energy community, but our achievements are only a fraction of what the nation is capable of,” the APEU’s president Vitalii Davii comments on the results of the industry’s development. He says that Ukraine will face a real boom in renewable energy during the next year. Davii sees ongoing transformation of many long-standing alternative energy and new fuels projects from blueprints into real facilities as a confirmation of his views.
