Share of foreign RES investors to be more than 30%, investment could reach EUR 2.5 bln by summer 2020 – experts

The share of foreign investors in the installed capacity of power plants operating on renewable energy sources (RES) would amount to more than 30% by the summer of 2020, and the amount of foreign investment in the sector would reach EUR 2.5 billion, Managing Partner of IMEPOWER Yuriy Kubrushko and its adviser Viktor Koval have said.

"According to our estimates, as of the summer 2020, the share of foreign investors in the installed capacity of power plants operating on renewable energy sources will be more than 30%, which will almost double the share of DTEK, and the amount of the corresponding investments will reach EUR 2.5 billion," they wrote in an article for the Energy Reform Internet portal.

The experts think that the contribution of foreign investors to the sector development is undervaluated. "Over the past years, some politicians and reporters have imagined the green energy industry of Ukraine as a sphere in which only oligarchs and persons affiliated with various officials work. Moreover, the fact that over the past years numerous foreign investors have come to this sector was persistently ignored," the IMEPOWER representatives said.

In addition, Kubrushko and Koval said that most foreign investors launched their first plants in Ukraine in 2019 or are still constructing them, which is why they are little known outside the renewable energy sector.

Among the largest foreign investors working in the wind generation sector of Ukraine, the authors of the article, in particular, indicated Vindkraft company, which owns a wind farm in Kherson region with a total capacity of 335 MW, Norwegian company NBT, which has been developing the Zophia wind farm with a capacity of 793 MW in Zaporizhia region since 2019 with an estimated volume investments exceeding EUR 1 billion, as well as implementing the construction project of Syvash wind farm with a capacity of 250 MW and an investment volume of EUR 376 million together with French partner Total Eren.

The authors of the article said that Luxembourg company Longwing Energy, together with the European fund VLC Renewables, which is implementing a project to construct a Zaporizhia wind farm with an installed capacity of 500 MW and a total investment of EUR 800 million. In addition, Kubrushko and Koval said that U.S. company Ukraine Power Resources (UPR), Turkish company Guris, Belgian Greenworx Holding, French Akuo Energy and Ukr Wind Investment Limited also operate in Ukraine.

According to the authors of the article, one of the major foreign players in the solar energy industry is Norwegian company Scatec Solar, which launched several solar power plants in Ukraine with a total capacity of 188 MW (investments amounted to EUR 194 million), as well as developing construction project of Prohresivka solar power plant of 148 MW, investment in which is planned at the level of EUR 124 million. In addition, the representatives of IMEPOWER indicated among the largest investors Chinese corporation CNBM, which owns 10 solar power plants with a total capacity of more than 300 MW in Odesa and Mykolaiv regions. The article's authors said that these facilities were previously owned by Activ Solar of brothers Andriy and Serhiy Klyuyev, but after its bankruptcy in 2016, the ownership rights to the plants passed to CNBM, which at that time was the main lender.

The authors also named Spanish company Acciona Energia, Canadian TIU Canada, Turkish EMSOLT, Korean GS Engineering and Construction, Belgian Upgrade Energy, Norwegian Norsk Solar, Danish Better Energy among those working in the solar generation sector of Ukraine.

DTEK Energy CEO Dmytro Sakharuk said at a roundtable on energy issues on May 5, the DTEK's share of the renewable energy market is 22%. He said that it will be made a balanced decision on the future development of renewable energy in Ukraine as a result of mediation between the industry and the government.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua