Ukraine drafts renewable energy auction rules

    The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine has published a draft law on its website to develop a large-scale renewable Solar System For Homes energy auction plan.

    According to the new regulations, operators of renewable energy power plants can receive technology-neutral premium subsidies in addition to the wholesale electricity price under the contract for difference.

     Now, these terms must be registered by Parliament. The new plan aims to replace Ukraine’s expired feed-in tariff policy, which has been the main driving force of Ukraine’s solar energy industry for many years.

    In December 2020, the Ministry of Energy proposed to hold an auction of 155MW of new solar power generation that year, and then auction 170MW in 2022, 180MW in 2023, 190MW in 2024, and 200MW in 2025. At that time, the Ministry of Energy stated that the next year's solar power generation capacity expected under the plan would reach more than three times the capacity of the new 50 MW project recommended by the National Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Conservation (SAEE) of Ukraine.

    This presentation compares the proposed figures for the next four years with SAEE’s proposed 80MW, 110MW, 140MW and 170MW solar power generation capacity. Ukrenergo, the national transmission system operator, proposed to adopt the same four-year auction plan for solar power generation in the next year (ie 2022), but did not propose a solar-related proposal after four years.

    According to statistics from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), as of the end of 2020, the installed solar capacity in Ukraine was 7.33GW. Last year, the country’s new installed photovoltaic capacity was approximately 1.39GW.