Andriz Gerus / Photo from UNIAN
Ukraine at the legislative level fixed one of the world's highest "green" tariffs.
Ukrainian MP, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities Andriy Gerus says payments under the "green" (feed-in) tariff in 2020 will grow 1.8 times from 2019, up to UAH 48 billion, or US$1.9 billion.
"If UAH 27 billion [US$1.1 billion] was paid for 'green' energy in 2019, the payments will stood at UAH 48 billion this year, that is, plus UAH 21 billion [US$837.3 million], which must be taken somewhere. This is a challenging issue," he said on a Ukrainian TV channel on February 4.
According to Gerus, this is due to the fact that Ukraine at the legislative level fixed one of the world's highest "green" tariffs, namely 15 euro cents per kWh for solar stations, while Germany has it at 4.7 euro cents and Uzbekistan – at 6 euro cents.
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The official noted that today Ukraine is in talks with investors to have the tariff changed.
"But we need to be very careful in this regard. At the moment, no bill [on changing the feed-in tariff] has been registered [in parliament]. We are not in a hurry, our dialogue [with investors] is ongoing, and it isn't easy," he added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the state-owned company Guaranteed Buyer predicts a UAH 8.2 billion (US$327 million) deficit of payments at the feed-in tariff to renewable energy facilities in 2020.
Renewables at 1.4 GW capacity are expected to be installed soon, which will have significant consequences for Ukraine's energy sector as a whole.
In 2019, US$3.7 billion was invested in Ukrainian renewables, which allowed the construction of additional facilities with 4.5 GW capacity. Thus, renewables capacity totaled 6.8 GW at the end of the year.