Ukraine is currently supporting solar energy through FITs for utility-scale projects and net metering for residential PV.
Image: Funky Tee, flickr
Solar energy saw a record in new PV additions in 2018 with approximately 645,6 MW of newly deployed capacity, according to figures provided to pv magazine by the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy (UARE).
Last year not only represented a strong growth compared to 2017, when new PV systems reached a total 211.0 MW, but also almost half of Ukraine’s current installed PV capacity, which is approximately 1.33 GW, according to UARE’s figures.
Overall, renewables have topped a total installed capacity of 2.11 GW at the end of 2018, with wind as the second largest source at 532 MW, followed by small-hydro power with 98,7 MW, biomass with 51.3 MW, and biogas with 46.2 MW. New additions related to these four technologies for last year totaled around 95 MW, with wind having the largest share with about 67 MW.
The growth of solar in Ukraine is mainly being driven by the generous FIT scheme for large-scale projects, which are being awarded €0.1502/kWh for ground-mounted facilities connected to the grid between 2017 and 2019. The Ukrainian government, however, is now on the verge of officializing a reform for the transition to an auction mechanism, which is expected to work starting from 2020.
But solar in Ukraine is not only large-scale solar parks. Of the 1.3 GW of current capacity, in fact, at least 121 MW is represented by small-sized rooftop systems under net metering provisions. As recent statistics have showed, a stronger growth of this kind of installations was registered in the first three quarters of last year.
Ukraine is adopting solar and renewables to improve energy independence from Russian gas. In April 2017, the eastern European country adopted a new law to liberalize the energy market and to meet requirements of the EU energy legislation.
Source: pv magazine
