In early June, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in whole Law "On Amendments to Some Laws of Ukraine regarding the competitive conditions of production of electricity from alternative energy sources" (Bill №2010d). According to the authors, the new document should return to Ukraine a reliable image of the "platform" for investment in the development of renewable energy. There is really something to work with.

According to a recent report by Bloomberg "Ukraine in turmoil: could renewables have a future?", Back in 2013 in Ukraine have been declared projects of objects of wind and solar power with a total capacity of 3.5 GW. This was to raise about EUR4 billion investment in six years. However, as they say in the report, in 2015 investment in renewable energy facilities ceased.

And the cause is not only the aggravation of the political situation, but also a controversial government policy in the regulation of "green" tariffs.

The Price of the question is really high. "In Ukraine there are more than 1 GW of renewable energy capacity. That's more than one unit of NPP. If we decide to build in Ukraine is now one atomic unit from the state budget, we would have had to allocate $ 8 billion, "- said Alexander Dombrowski, the first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety.

"Green" tariff

The biggest story of the Law - removed the possible abolition of "green" tariffs as the main incentive for investors. "The key is the fact that, by adopting the bill №2010d, Supreme Council reaffirmed the legitimacy of the" green "tariff. Thus, attempts to supporters of the national energy dependence on natural gas and nuclear fuel to discredit the newly originated in Ukraine renewable energy sector have failed, "- says Andrew Konechenkov, chairman of the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association.

This document provides that in the next two years for major ground SES capacity of over 10 MW canceled the action of so-called peak factor. As explained Vitaly Daviy, president of the Association of market participants of alternative fuels, in the formula for calculating tariffs for the three components of the SES. The basis is taken retail tariff for consumers of voltage class II in January 2009, which is multiplied by a factor of "green" tariff.

This part of the formula is the same for all kinds of alternative energy. But SES is the third component - the peak factor, which, according to the decision NERC №1241 from 20.12.01 city, is set at 1.8 (and it led to unnecessarily high prices for their electricity). That is, the purchase prices for electricity large SES reduced almost twice.

"The law will make it possible to save up to year-end 1 billion UAH. and balance the energy market. Moreover, would "equalize" fairness in the market of alternative energy, "- said the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchishin.

However, even without a peak rate "green" tariffs for solar power in Ukraine remains among the highest in Europe. Therefore, analysts believe, a temporary innovation should not be a serious obstacle to the development of this segment of the energy sector.

Along with these factors were increased "green" tariff for electricity produced by small hydro and solar power. In addition to the tariff for individual solar panels appeared and "green" tariff for individuals (up to 30 kW) wind turbines. However, as noted by Mr. Konechenkov, "it is the lack of difference in the tariff for domestic solar and wind installations, which creates technical difficulties in the case of combined wind and solar systems."

But market participants bioenergy primarily noted a new conceptual apparatus corresponding to European standards. In particular, significantly extended the term "biomass" that enable the use of not only waste and energy crops, but products of other industries (such as pellets).

"As waste products and other industries will be considered as biomass projects applying for" green "tariff, which significantly improves the conditions of their implementation," - said Giorgi Geletukha, chairman of the Public Union "Bioenergy Association of Ukraine."

Local content

However, it is equally important for the investment attractiveness of the Ukrainian renewable energy will become and the abolition of compulsory local content. This is the percentage of raw materials, components, services and works of Ukrainian origin, the size of which is 50%.

In other words, for an investor to create an additional barrier: under the existing technology in Ukraine is often impossible to raise funds, and in violation of the established size of local content and the use of imported components can not be obtained "green" tariff. Operators with great difficulty managed to "choose" the quota by maximizing the proportion of the estimate work of local construction materials, etc.

Instead, the developers of the new document have adopted the experience of regulating the localization of production in Italy. That is the rule of "local content" is canceled and instead introduced a stimulating factor for the "green" tariff in the use of domestic equipment in the amount of 5%, if the localization is 30%, or 10%, if the localization - 50%, said a senior partner at the law firm "Asters" Armen Khachaturyan.

In addition, as noted in "Asters", the new law removed one "stumbling block" in the way of investors. According to the document, the connection of new renewable energy facility to the network no longer require the inclusion of the project in the 10-year plan for development of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine (this rule apply to all facilities with capacity greater than 5 MW). There are cases where objects are not ready to connect to the network for two or three years.

Source: www.business.ua