Ukraine has every opportunity to abandon fossil fuels by 2050 and bring the share of green energy in its energy demand up to 91%. This is evidenced by the results of the report «Transition of Ukrainian energy sector towards 100% RES in 2050» presented today.

«The work on this study started a year and a half ago in order to obtain scientific arguments in support of the transition of Ukraine’s energy sector to 100% renewable energy,» – said Oksana Aliyeva, coordinator of Climate Change and Energy Policy program of Heinrich Böll Foundation Ukraine, which supported this work.

Today, Ukraine lags behind the level of renewable energy use not only in economically developed countries, but also at global level. So, if the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption in the world amounted to 20% in 2014, in Ukraine this figure was only 4.2%.

According to the report, the transition to renewable energy sources (RES) is possible when relevant policy is set, the energy efficiency measures are encouraged, the restrictions on thermal power plants emissions are put in accordance with Ukraine’s commitments and no new nuclear power units are constructed.

Such a transition will occur primarily due to the energy of wind, sun and biomass. At the same time, in the structure of electricity production, the share of wind farms can reach 45%, solar — 36%, and biomass and waste in the structure of heat energy production — up to 73%.

«Ukraine has enough renewable energy potential to gradually replace both coal and nuclear generation, the report has confirmed this,» – commented Iryna Holovko, head of the Energy department of the environmental public organization Ecoaction. – Such a transition will considerably increase our energy security — since it will not be necessary to purchase imported energy, as well as reduce the burden on the environment due to significant reduction of emissions and water consumption.

Even with the less ambitious second scenario, which provides for perfect competition between energy producers, the share of nuclear power in the Ukrainian electricity industry falls to 13% in 2050 from 54% in 2015. This decline is due to the exhaustion of the technical potential of the operating nuclear power plants and high cost and significant terms for the construction of new nuclear power plants. The last two factors do not allow the nuclear power industry to compete with renewable energy technologies that rapidly decrease its cost.

For more information, please contact:

Oksana Aliyeva, coordinator of Climate Change and Energy Policy program of Heinrich Böll Foundation Ukraine — oksana.aliieva@ua.boell.org

Alexander Dyachuk, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Government Agency «Institute for Economics and Forecasting» of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine — diachuk@ief.org.ua

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The full version of the report is available here.

The work «Transition of Ukrainian energy sector towards 100% RES in 2050» was carried out by the Government Agency «Institute for Economics and Forecasting» of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation Ukraine in cooperation with the civil society organizations, state authorities, profile associations and independent experts.