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9.1.10 ​Renewables sector news
Ukraine’s green energy sector, responsible for almost 9% of total country’s electricity generation, is going through the worst crisis in its short history​. As of the end of November, the state owed $330mn to renewable power producers. This was announced by the newly appointed acting Minister of Energy Yuriy Boyko. On July 31, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill on reducing tariffs for solar and wind power plants by 15% and 7.5% respectively. A sector that has generated 25% of the nearly $60bn of total foreign direct investment in the country over the past three decades, now struggles from misunderstanding what to do next.
NPC Ukrenergo needs to attract UAH11.3bn under government guarantees for paying to electricity producers from renewable power sources (RES) and state-owned generating companies, ​acting Energy Minister Yuriy Boiko has said. "The debt to be paid off to the green power companies is UAH9bn, and according to our estimates, in order to maintain parity, the volume of funds raised will amount to UAH11.3bn," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday. At the same time, according to him, it is necessary to "repay debts in a balanced way", which means their repayment both to RES producers and to state-owned generating companies involved in public service obligations (PSO).
9.1.11 ​Metallurgy & mining sector news
All unprofitable mines will be closed in this decade, Olha Buslavets, first deputy Energy Minister said last week at the First German-Ukrainian Energy Day​. “Unprofitable mines will be closed within ten years,” she said. “The minimization of subsidies to the industry from the state budget will take place in the coming years.” Addressing the challenge of retraining and relocating thousands of miners, she said: “Care must be taken so that no one is left behind. This is the motto of a fair transformation of the coal industry, laid down in the European Green Deal. This should happen with us, too.”
With demand high for lithium for batteries, Gosgeonadr, the state Geology Service, is trying to conduct a public, online auction of two deposits – ​a 40-hectare site in Donetsk region and a 300-hectare site in Kirovohrad region. “However, there are attempts through the courts to disrupt open electronic bidding,” Roman Opimakh, head of Gosgeonadr, writes on Facebook. “This is in order not to pay a fair price set by open competitive bidding.” Noting that the Donetsk site may have 13.5mn tons of lithium ore, he writes: “There is a significant demand for the ‘metals of the future’ in the world market – and this includes lithium.”
Elena Bilan, Dragon Capital’s Chief Economist noted that the export price for Ukrainian steel has risen by 150% this year, to almost $700/ton. ​She wrote: “favourable prices for export goods and foreign investment in government bonds create conditions for strengthening the hryvnia...The terms of trade for Ukraine are currently the best in the last nine years.”
63​ UKRAINE Country Report​ January 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com