The future necessity of a post-war renovation opens opportunities for modernization of the economy and the energy sector, where wind power may play one of the critical roles. The necessity to decrease dependency on fossils and improve the country’s energy self-sufficiency, the need to substitute depreciated and damaged energy facilities with new and modern, the inevitability of the energy transition, and the need to follow EU’s climate policy due to Ukraine’s European integration aspirations – all these comply with the potential of the wind power in Ukraine.
For decades Ukraine’s reliance on fossils, primarily Russian, was a part of the geopolitical puzzle to feed oligarchs and ruling elites with corruptive rent and was used to keep Ukraine in Russia’s orbit of influence. However, Ukraine has a vast potential for renewable energy, among which wind power holds the top place. Development of the renewable power industry started in 2008 and had a good push after 2014 when the Revolution of Dignity was a new spin on breaking Russia’s political and energy
dependency. The wind power sector demonstrated good growth in recent years but still is far from enough to use available potential and cover domestic energy needs.
Russian full-scale war against Ukraine unleashed on February 24, 2022, was related to massive destructions, including the energy infrastructure. Sure, before the war ends, the condition of the economy and the damages to the energy sector are still unclear. But the future necessity of a postwar renovation opens opportunities for modernization of the economy and the energy sector, where wind power may play one of the critical roles. The necessity to decrease dependency on fossils and improve the country’s energy self-sufficiency, the need to substitute depreciated and damaged energy facilities with new and modern, the inevitability of the energy transition, and the need to follow EU’s climate policy due to Ukraine’s European integration aspirations – all these comply with the potential of the wind power in Ukraine.
Author: Andrian Prokip
Cooperation: Krzysztof Kobyłka
