Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy has developed a bill that would change how Ukraine’s green energy tariff works, the ministry’s press service announced on Aug. 27.
Ukraine
The Ukrainian parliament has voted to amend the feed-in tariff on renewable energy production, with 228 deputies voting in favor of the changes on July 21.
Ukraine first established a feed-in tariff to support renewables’ development in 2008. Technical restrictions were later introduced which excluded all but a short list of businessmen from entering the market. It appeared that only oligarchs were benefiting from these restrictions. Following the Revolution of Dignity in the winter of 2013–2014, parliament amended the legislation in order to open the renewable electricity to all willing market participants.
They are words to chill the soul of solar project owners when uttered in relation to feed-in tariffs: retroactive FIT cuts. A Ukrainian government smarting at the cost of funding an overly successful solar incentive program appears bent on emulating the approach of governments in Spain, Italy and Czechia by reopening signed payment contracts to reset the monies paid for clean power, despite the costly lawsuits that have greeted such moves in the past.
The Ukrainian government’s conference rooms have been stuffier than usual lately, as policymakers and renewable energy industry representatives attempted to thrash out a compromise to reduce the financial burden left on the administration by a feed-in tariff incentive regime which drove almost 2 GW of generation capacity
The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine urged the government “to avoid unilateral imposition of severe tariff cuts that could be detrimental to the viability of renewables projects,” according to an emailed statement by the business group’s president in Ukraine, Andy Hunder, sent by email.
Restructuring of the feed-in tariff for electricity generated by solar power plants is inappropriate for the sector, Executive Director of the Solar Energy Association of Ukraine Artem Semenyshyn said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Tuesday.
The PPA is a contract entered between a producer of electricity collected from renewable resources and the off-taker – the State Enterprise “Energorynok”, which has a legal obligation to purchase all electricity collected from renewable energy resources at the guaranteed “green” (feed-in) tariff.
The number of households that installed roof solar power plants and selling power at the feed-in tariff grew by 18% in January-March 2017 or by 200 households, to 1,309, according to a posting on the website of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine.
On June 4, 2015, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the Draft Law No. 2010-d (amending scheme of feed-in tariffs in Ukraine) as approved at hearings of the parliamentary committee of Ukraine April 22, 2015.
