Ukraine installed between 800MW and 850MW of solar PV capacity in 2024, according to estimates from the national solar energy trade association.
The Solar Energy Association of Ukraine (SEAU) said that the “vast majority” of these installations were by private businesses and households for self-consumption. Despite the attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure and the ongoing war with Russia, Vladyslav Sokolovskyi, chairman of the board of the SEAU, said the figures were “positive”.
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“Everyone remembers the missile strikes in April of last year, which destroyed many generation facilities. But we held out, and we are moving forward,” Sokolovskyi said at a press conference last week.
The growth in self-consumption “was facilitated by the cancellation of VAT and import duties on solar panels and other equipment during the summer”, he continued. “Of course, this growth is not comparable to, for instance, 2019, when industrial solar power plants were actively constructed. Nonetheless, we are seeing positive changes.
“Until 2022, distributed generation was largely overlooked, with the state paying no attention to these issues. It was only the full-scale invasion that pushed the state to start developing distributed generation processes,” Sokolovskyi said.
The SEAU said it expects to see an increase in distributed generation over the next year, in particular as businesses seek energy security through pairing solar generation with energy storage systems. It singled out Ukraine’s agricultural sector (the backbone of its economy which saw the country dubbed the “breadbasket of Europe”) as a key adopter of distributed renewable energy.
“Primarily, solar installations are needed by agricultural companies located far from power substations or requiring new power transmission lines. Economic feasibility will drive the agrivoltaic issue, whose global growth we are observing. Agricultural companies should seriously consider this opportunity. This year, we will certainly see the first results,” Sokolovskyi said.
A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) in October said that security hazards, conflicts and geopolitical tensions, like the war in Ukraine, pose a “major risk” to the global energy system in the coming years.
Outside of Ukraine, in the rest of Europe, the boom in distributed generation and self-consumption which followed the outbreak of war has largely subsided.
As well as reliance on businesses seeking energy security, the SEAU called for the Ukrainian government to maintain favourable conditions for private investors in the renewable energy sector.
Sokolovskyi was insistent on the importance of private-sector investment in Ukraine’s renewable energy sector: “The state must think of its main ally—private investors. If the state begins implementing non-market regulatory mechanisms in the energy market, including in the renewable energy sector, in my view, the system will collapse.”
