A new National Action Plan state decree for the development of wind energy was recently issued by the Ukrainian government, after being approved by the country’s cabinet.
The ambitious new goals called for by the decree include increasing the wind energy capacity of the country up to 2.28 GW by the year 2020 — which represents a 500% increase on the current figure of 410 MW.
The decree also calls for the development of renewables. Needless to say, part of the motivation behind the new aims is to become less dependent on energy imports (like those from Russia) — thereby improving geopolitical independence.
“According to Sergey Savchuk, chairman of the Ukraine’s state agency for energy efficiency and energy saving, the total volume of investments, both foreign and domestic in renewables should reach UAH 60-70 billion ($3.5-4.3 billion) by this time, Wind Power Monthly states.
“The government said that much will depend on the further development of situation in eastern Ukraine. Savchuk said the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix should reach 11% by 2020. This will allow Ukraine to reduce the consumption of natural gas by about 50%.”
However, a current challenge for meeting these targets is that the country has strong local sourcing requirements, which deters foreign investment and also excludes the possibility of buying lower-priced foreign technologies. Perhaps these will change before too long in order to make the ambitious targets more realistic.
Owing to the complexity of the situation in the region, whether or not these goals can actually be achieved is something of an open question. So many variables are involved. As just one example, the Secretariat of the European Energy Community has already raised some objections.
Without a doubt, more renewable energy means greater energy security, and very likely at lower costs, but that doesn’t mean achieving the goal is going to be easy.
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