This year’s first international webinar was held by the UWEA in collaboration with the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) on February 29, 2024. The webinar titled “Ukrainian Wind Power Market” provided insights into the current market status, already adopted and expected changes in RES legislation, available market advantages, and opportunities as well as the contribution of German wind business in wind deployment in Ukraine. The webinar featured the experience of such UWEA member companies as NOTUS Energy Plan GmbH & Co. KG and Deutsche WindGuard GmbH.
In her opening remarks, Dorothee Baxmann, Project Manager at BWE and webinar’s moderator noted that Ukraine has immense potential for both onshore and offshore wind energy. “Ukraine has completed more onshore wind turbines than England since it was occupied by russian soldiers,” Mrs. Baxmann recalled.
The discussion started with a speech by Dr. Yulia Rybak, Advisor to the Minister of Energy of Ukraine, Co-Head of German-Ukrainian Energy Partnership Secretariat who emphasized the importance of the Ukrainian-German Partnership in the renewable energy sector of Ukraine, the current status of the national power sector, and the role of international partners in meeting its urgent needs. According to Dr. Rybak: “Between 2022 and 2023, the national grid saw an addition of approximately 600 MW of new “green” capacities. Out of this, 350 MW were added in 2023 alone. Ukraine is committed to continuing its efforts towards sustainable development and the support from German businesses can prove to be especially valuable for the growth of distributed wind generation and the increase in biomethane production.”
Galyna Shmidt, UWEA Board Member, and Oleksandr Podprugin, Deputy Chairman of the UWEA Board and Country Manager at Notus Energy, jointly provided an in-depth analysis of Ukraine’s wind energy market, including its current status and future prospects. In her presentation, Galyna Shmidt informed that wind power with a 21.7% share is currently the second largest sector in terms of installed capacity in the national RES electricity mix. Additionally, she stated that the technical potential for the development of offshore wind energy in the Black and Azov Seas is estimated to be as high as 50 GW. “By the end of 2023, a total of €3.5 billion had been invested in the wind energy sector in Ukraine. Despite the challenges faced by the development of wind energy projects in Ukraine today, our market is alive and thriving. The importance of renewable energy, particularly wind energy, cannot be overstated in enhancing the resilience of the power grid and ensuring uninterrupted access to the electricity supply like never before,” Mrs. Galyna underlined.
Oleksandr Podprugin emphasized, in turn, the importance of wind energy as the foundation for rebuilding Ukraine’s energy sector. “Renewable energy sources are among the top five industries with the highest added value, making their development in Ukraine a quick and effective way to stimulate the growth of the national economy. “Green” energy can also boost the competitiveness of Ukraine’s export-oriented heavy industry in the EU market. Although Ukraine has made significant progress in deploying wind power capacities in recent years, it is still insufficient to diversify export potential, meet growing energy needs, and replace destroyed capacities,” noted the Deputy Chairman of the UWEA Board.
Mr. Podprugin was followed by Ivan Bondarchuk, UWEA Board Member, Counsel, and Head of Energy Practice at LCF Law Group who exhaustively described the available legal toolkits for developing wind energy projects in Ukraine and the latest industry-specific legislative updates. “In recent years, a significant achievement has been the simplification of the procedure for changing the designated purpose of land plots, which includes generation facilities and high-voltage networks. One of the important steps also is a continuing collaborative effort between wind energy investors and relevant state authorities to implement the “capacity booking” mechanism in Ukraine,” said Ivan Bondarchuk.
Finally, Hannes Helm, Country Director, NOTUS energy Plan GmbH & Co. KG, and Leif Rehfeldt, Managing Director, Deutsche WindGuard GmbH, gave their perspectives on doing business and developing wind energy projects in Ukraine nowadays.
In his speech, Hannes Helm mentioned that in comparison to Germany, Ukraine has significant wind resources almost all over its territory, which makes the country very promising in terms of wind potential. “It is essential to highlight that the wind farms commissioned in the last two years are the result of the hard work of local market players. As we move forward, we need to enter a new phase of industry development, where international investors and financial institutions will take the lead. This is my primary objective as well,” said Mr. Helm, adding that the company has already brought 301.2 MW of its wind power capacity to the RtB stage, which will be implemented in the Odesa region.
Leif Rehfeldt also informed that Deutsche WindGuard GmbH is committed to supporting more wind energy projects in Ukraine. “In the Ukrainian market, we have conducted 49 wind measurements over the past 15 years. We have assessed the wind resource for more than 7,500 MW of planned new capacity and conducted 9 technical due diligence studies along with 7 power curve measurements. We are committed to continuing our work and are determined to keep going,” Mr. Rehfeldt summarized.
UWEA thanks the German Wind Energy Association for co-organizing the webinar, raising awareness of the Ukrainian-German partnership in renewable energy.ʼ
