Solar plants under threat from hostilities in Ukraine

The renewable energy trade body of Ukraine has said 37% of the nation’s ground-mounted solar project capacity is in regions where active hostilities are taking place, with a further 34% in adjacent areas.

A strongly worded statement issued by the Ukrainian Association of Renewable Energy (UARE) on Thursday added, 35% of the country’s roof and facade-mounted solar capacity was also installed in region’s with hostilities taking place, with another 19% of such systems nearby.

The UARE reported “registered cases of destruction” of solar panels and claimed Russian forces “steal all the equipment from the stations, everything that can be stolen and taken away.”

With the trade body stating troops had also destroyed electricity transmission lines since Russia invaded 20 days ago, the association said 6.37GW of the country’s 9.5GW of clean power generation capacity – including wind farms and biomass, biogas, and small hydro facilities – is either in or next to regions affected by the fighting.

That translates into $9.2 billion worth of the $12 billion the UARE estimated has been invested into Ukrainian clean power facilities in the last decade.

The trade body added: “Given the cost of capital investment; the cost of restoring generation capacity, transmission lines [and] equipment; compensation for health and [the] lives of renewable energy workers in Ukraine, [the] Ukrainian renewable energy sector will demand compensation from Russian invaders in international courts.”