Norway generates almost all of its electricity from the wind, sun, and water. Ukraine, in contrast, makes power mostly from nuclear reactors and burning fossil fuels.
To shift that balance, and bring some of Norway’s green expertise to Ukraine, Norwegian firm NBT is spending $400 million on building what’s to be Ukraine’s biggest wind farm.
The NBT energy farm will consist of over 60 wind turbine towers — 120-meter-tall “windmills” with 40-meter-long blades. They will be placed on a site covering 1,300 hectares by the Syvash Lake, an area bordering Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimea, about 700 kilometers south of Kyiv.
The total power generating capacity of the planned farm is up to 250 megawatts per year, whereas today’s biggest wind farm in Ukraine can currently produce a maximum of 200 megawatts.
On average, however, the wind farm is expected to produce 950 million kilowatt-hours annually, given that the wind doesn’t blow hard all the time. Even though this is not much for Ukraine on a national level — as the country consumes 150 billion kilowatt-hours annually — regionally it is a significant amount of generating capacity. The wind farm will secure one-third of the power consumption of Kherson Oblast, a region with a population of one million. One household consumes on average 200 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month.
‘Amazing’ opportunity
The firm’s executives are looking forward to building such a large wind farm in Ukraine, which will in fact be the largest in their project portfolio to date. According to them, the business climate here looks “amazing,” as the government supports renewable energy production with “attractive” green tariffs. In Ukraine, the government pays 13 cents per kilowatt-hour of “green” energy — almost three times as much as Norway pays (5 cents.) This means wind farm projects can quickly start producing a return.
The Norwegian firm says it sees a lot of demand for renewable energy sources in Ukraine, as the country tries to reduce its dependence on traditional resources like gas, oil, and coal.
“Nobody can control the wind, sun, and water,” said Thorstein Jenssen, the project manager for NBT. “Renewable sources don’t have such a connection to politics as gas and coal. This means it’s a good way to liberalize electricity generation.”
And compared to Norway, Ukraine’s weather conditions are well suited to renewables: Jenssen said solar and wind power is easy to make here.
NBT has partnered with two companies to work on the new wind farm: Nordex and PowerChina. German firm Nordex will supply the turbines, while PowerChina will install them.
With the farm costing about $400 million altogether, NBT attracted non-recourse low-interest loans from international financial institutions: seven banks led by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development.
Construction of the wind farm is scheduled to be completed by 2020.
NBT, an experienced wind farm builder, reckons the schedule is realistic. It has built two wind parks with an overall 150-megawatt capacity in China, where it looks to further increase its presence. The Norwegians also plan to launch projects in Thailand and Vietnam.
Global presence
NBT has offices in Norway, Cyprus, China, Singapore, and Pakistan. The company’s corporate management and administration are located in Oslo, while technical functions and procurement are located in Beijing and Singapore.
And even with such a global presence, NBT believes Ukraine’s potential for using renewables is greater than anywhere else. And so they want to build even more wind power farms here, eventually increasing the total capacity of their plants to 1,000 megawatts.
Jenssen says this ambition was something the Norwegians kept in mind as they started operations here. “With building the farm in Kherson, we’re developing a platform that foresees further growth,” he said.
To prepare this platform, NBT acquired Ukrainian energy company Sivashenergoprom LLC in April, and then opened its office in Kyiv in May.
“We very strongly believe in the local electricity market, in its current form (with regard to tariffs). And we’re certainly a long-term investor in Ukraine,” Jenssen said.
The Kyiv Post’s technology coverage is sponsored by Ciklum and NIX Solutions. The content is independent of the donors.
