IMPACT OF WAR ON WIND ENERGY

Since 2014, when the russian federation launched its armed aggression against Ukraine, the national wind energy sector has undergone significant structural changes and losses. With the annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine lost 87.5 MW of wind energy capacity, and with the subsequent occupation of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, another 138 MW.

The greatest impact on the functioning of the national wind energy market and industry companies was exerted by russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, during which regions with one of the largest wind resources in Ukraine, namely Zaporizhia and part of Kherson regions, were temporarily occupied. In general, as of the beginning of 2024, 71% of wind energy capacity was located in the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine. In addition, during the first two years of the war, 11 wind turbines were damaged or completely destroyed by russian occupation forces. Thus, as of December 31, 2023, out of the total 1.9 GW of wind energy capacity, only 583.8 MW continued to supply “green” electricity to the unified energy system of Ukraine.

At the same time, being UNBREAKABLE, Ukraine’s wind energy sector has learned to operate and develop in the face of large-scale armed conflict. In the first two years of full-scale war, 228 MW of new wind energy capacity was added in Ukraine.

The year 2023 went down in the history of the national wind energy industry as the year when direct installation of wind turbines was carried out by Ukrainian companies with the remote/online participation of Western contractors and wind turbine manufacturers in the form of consultations or virtual instructions.

HOW ELSE DID THE WAR AFFECT US?

During April-May 2022, UWEA conducted a survey among its member companies regarding their activities during the period of martial law, occupation of wind energy facilities, conscription of personnel into military service, and, in general, the suspension of their business activities.

Survey results:
53.3% of companies did not stop their activities at all from the beginning of a full-scale invasion, while 33.4% stopped their activities for the first few days or weeks.
A small number of companies decided to temporarily or completely relocate their office or production facilities to another region of Ukraine.

One of the largest relocation cases was the final transfer of the wind turbine production plant of the Wind Parks of Ukraine Management Company from Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, to Western Ukraine.

The full-scale invasion led to a change in the format of work of wind energy companies, primarily due to the evacuation of some personnel abroad. The volume of work and the length of the working day were also reduced.

Some UWEA member companies have introduced the practice of “secondment” with full-scale invasion, that is, the temporary transfer of employees to another department or to another organization to distribute the load and manage costs.

The war also affected companies’ expense items. Almost all companies reduced administrative expenses, including rent and travel expenses, as well as marketing and PR. All development companies, in turn, reduced expenses for servicing generating facilities and fulfilling bank obligations, while at the same time increasing expenses for relocation, social support for employees and their families, volunteering, and charity.

In just the first 2.5-3 months of the full-scale war, 70% of companies that participated in the survey spent a total of over UAH 1 billion on various types of support for local communities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, displaced persons, and refugees.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, UWEA member companies in their volunteer activities not only cooperated with existing public organizations, foundations and industry companies, but also created their own foundations and humanitarian initiatives. Thus, the law firm Sayenko Kharenko became a co-founder of the “Breathe” foundation and the social project 4refugees.info; the law firm Asters began coordinating the humanitarian initiative “Business Support”; the law firm Everlegal created the charitable foundation “Good evening, we are from Ukraine”, a Telegram channel and a hotline with free operational legal support for Ukrainian citizens, and also launched two projects: HELP DESK: Ukraine — consulting Ukrainian business on issues related to the negative consequences of military operations on the territory of Ukraine and HELP DESK: Poland — providing legal assistance to Ukrainians abroad.

UWEA, in turn, became a co-initiator of the Wind Industry Supporting Ukrainians campaign together with WindEurope and a co-founder of the Renewables4Ukraine initiative together with the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) and Global 100%RE.