In 2020, the need of global transition to renewable energy sources (RES), being an essential part in the strategy of decarbonization and decentralization of energy, is undoubtful. Development of RES has benefits that go beyond environmental health – it does enhance national security, encourage the nation’s economic viability, create thousands of jobs that can’t be outsourced – all while avoiding the inevitable, significant damages the economy will suffer should the situation be kept unchanged.
One of the foreign investors in development of renewable energy in Ukraine is the leading group of Turkey in the construction industry and energy projects Guris. The Company has entered Ukraine back in 2012 with a 250 MW wind power plant (WPP) in Crimea, but had to halt the project right after the start of construction due to the annexation of the peninsula. In the difficult times of 2014, Guris showed its dedication to the market with a 60 million euros investment in the construction of the first wind power plant (WPP) in Southern Ukraine – 32.67 MW Ovid Wind WPP in Odesa region, which was successfully commissioned in April, 2019.
The introduction of the feed-in (“green”) tariff in Ukraine and the fact that the country is indeed resource-rich resulted in a sequence of multi-million investments from both local and foreign companies into the construction of RES facilities like solar and wind power plants. But since the beginning of 2020 the payments due for the generated electricity have not been timely made. After long negotiations, the problem was addressed by Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Ukrainian State and Energy Associations in June 2020, under which the State’s commitment, namely to make the payments on time, was repeated. We see an improvement in the payment situation, but not to the full effect. One can say investors within all industries are keeping a close eye on the investment climate in Ukraine (i.e., performance of the government in this respect).
In the case of Guris’s future investments in Ukraine, such naturally depend on the investment climate – whether the obligations undertaken by the government are to be fulfilled in full, whether we will notice the development in the sector and so on. Currently, Guris has got 2 projects of WPPs ready for construction.
As part of our involvement in the energy sector, we are also interested in energy storage technologies and highly promising alternatives such as hydrogen, as we believe that energy conservation is the foundation of energy independence and hydrogen, being easily storable and energy-dense, produces no direct emissions of pollutants or greenhouse gases. We are developing various feasibility studies for these ideas and one of such is a pilot electrolysis production facility nearby our existing wind power plant. The potential pilot plant will look to produce green hydrogen, using onsite and/or grid-sourced renewable power sources.
The declining costs of renewable electricity, in particular from solar PV and wind, is making the renewables competitive with fossil fuels in developed countries, and it can happen in Ukraine as well. So, you could power Ukraine with renewables from a technical and economic standpoint – the biggest obstacle is political will.
Facts / statistics:
100 < – completed projects and investments in almost every sector of construction business implementing the projects of construction of industry, water structures, infrastructure and transportation objects, energy facilities, as well as hotels, housing, hospitals, university buildings, business centers and administrative buildings.
Our power installation consisting entirely of renewable energy in Turkey currently 895,54MW + Abroad 64.4 MW in total 959.94 MW.
22 – number of green power plants
10 – number of wind power plants
7 – number of geothermal power plants
6 – number of hydroelectric power plants
210 MW Efeler Geothermal Power Plant is one of the most important Geothermal Power Plant in the area.
