Ukraine Sees Success With Clean Energy 11/20 06:15

   

   BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) -- Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, the largest private 
energy company in Ukraine, pulls out a piece of paper with bar charts showing 
how much new electricity his company has brought online this year in the 
country versus how much Russian bombs have destroyed.

   Total electricity goes up, then down, then up, then down -- capturing the 
company's constant rebuilding each time Russian missile attacks take out a 
facility, which include wind and solar farms and thermal (coal or gas-fired) 
generating stations. The Russian strikes are part of a campaign to target 
energy infrastructure to reduce power in Ukraine as winter looms.

   "What other choice do we have?" said Timchenko during an interview on the 
sidelines of this year's U.N. climate talks, taking place in Azerbaijan. "Sit 
and wait and pray that they don't hit us, or do our job and bring lights back 
to our people?"

   The nearly three-year-long Russia-Ukraine war, which has left large swaths 
of Ukraine destroyed, has accelerated a transition to clean energy. At 
Ukraine's pavilion at COP29, on display is a large smashed solar panel, 
destroyed in an attack this year.

   Russian forces continue to make small but steady gains in capturing 
Ukrainian territory at a time when there are questions about how much the 
United States, which has been providing weapons and money, will continue to 
support the country once President-elect Donald Trump assumes office in 
January. During the campaign, Trump repeatedly said he could quickly end the 
war if elected, although he hasn't said how.

   Whatever the future, the decentralized nature of some clean energies, in 
particular wind and solar, has allowed Ukraine to quickly restore power in ways 
that would be impossible with Ukraine's more traditional energy sources, such 
as coal-fired power plants.

   In centralized systems, all power is generated and sent to the grid over 
transmission lines from the same area. That means if the plant goes down, say 
in an attack, a large section of grid, or even the entire grid, comes to a 
halt. By contrast, wind and solar installations are usually more scattered, so 
less of the system goes down with one hit, and if the solar is on rooftops, the 
impact can be even more limited.

   Attacks on two DTEK solar farms last spring is a good example. They 
destroyed many solar panels and some of the transformers, which step up voltage 
for long distances or step it down for use in homes. Replacing the transformers 
and swapping out destroyed panels allowed the farms, which generate 400 
megawatts, to be back up in seven days.

   Timchenko said an attack on a thermal generating station, which experienced 
a similar amount of damage, took three to four months to rebuild.

   "That's the difference between centralized and so-called decentralized 
generation. It's much more resistant and difficult to destroy," said Timchenko.

   Geoffrey Pyatt, assistant secretary of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of 
Energy Resources, said that Russian attacks on energy infrastructure have 
evolved. In 2022 and 2023, they focused on transformers.

   "The Ukrainians were incredibly efficient in working around those attacks. 
So Putin changed his tactics beginning in March to go after generation 
capacity," said Pyatt, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

   Since then, about 50% of Ukraine's total power generation has been knocked 
out, leaving mostly nuclear, some hydropower and large new renewable projects, 
like a wind farm being built by DTEK, he added.

   Renewable and other infrastructure projects are financed by partnerships 
between governments and businesses, spreading out the risk, since there is no 
guarantee that something built isn't destroyed by missiles. In June, turbine 
maker GE Vernova and manufacturer Honeywell announced plans to partner with 
DTEK for major wind and battery storage projects in Ukraine.

   Roger Martella, chief sustainability officer for GE Vernova, said that 
developing public-private partnerships was key to lowering risk and making 
investment more attractive. Ukraine's resistance was also an inspiration, 
Martella told a panel on Ukrainian renewables at COP29.

   "We're humbled by the fact that Ukraine has done something no one has ever 
done before, which is to maintain the grid in a war-torn environment," said 
Martella.

   Pyatt, a former ambassador in Ukraine, said he has seen widespread support 
for Ukraine's energy systems in the G7, a group of leading industrialized 
nations.

   While making clear he couldn't speak for the incoming Trump administration, 
Pyatt said he believed support for Ukraine in the energy sector would "continue 
in any scenario."

   "If you start to get big American companies like GE and Fluxus and Honeywell 
involved in energy reconstruction, and there's going to be billions of dollars 
of energy reconstruction," he said.