Capacity of wind farms in Ukraine could grow by nearly 6 GW in 2025-2027 - UWEA deputy head

MOSCOW. June 23 (Interfax) - Ukraine might commission wind power plants with aggregate capacity of about 6 GW in 2025-2027, Alexander Podprugin, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association (UWEA), said at a business lunch on Ukraine's power sector reform at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2023) in London.

"The aggregate capacity of projects that are nearly ready for construction and might be commissioned in 2025-2027 is 6 GW. Certainly, they might be supplemented with new projects to be commissioned in the 2030s," Ukrainian media quoted Podprugin as saying at the event.

Before the crisis, Ukraine's wind power sector had been developing quite rapidly, and its aggregate capacity topped 1.8 GW as of the first quarter of 2022.

Another 1 GW of installed capacity was to be commissioned in 2022, but all these projects have been frozen because of the crisis, he said.

Over 73% of Ukraine's wind power generation capacity is currently in territories not controlled by Kiev, Podprugin said.

He described it as a sign of resilience that some developers are continuing to build wind farms (in particular, the 114 MW Tiligul wind farm).

Ukraine has immense wind power generation potential, Podprugin said, referring, in particular, to the World Bank estimating it at over 250 GW of offshore wind power generation.

As reported earlier, in line with Ukraine's energy strategy presented at the URC2023, the country may boost its wind generation capacity to 140 GW by 2050, which would require $134 billion in financing, solar power generation capacity to 94 GW ($62 billion), energy storage to 38 GW ($25 billion), nuclear power generation to 30 GW ($80 billion), thermal power and bio power generation to 18 GW (no financing data available), and hydropower generation to 9 GW ($4.5 billion).

Additionally, Ukraine needs about $72 billion for developing hydrogen technology, $5 billion for power transmission systems, and $4.5 billion for hydropower generation.

Energy Minister German Galushchenko estimated investment opportunities for new power generation facilities in Ukraine at $383 billion.

At the URC2023, UWEA and RenewableUK, the United Kingdom's largest association, signed a memorandum of cooperation aimed at enhancing cooperation, sharing knowledge, and developing the market and trade between the signatories' renewable energy sectors.