Online Webinar: Preparing to Establish “Green” Energy Communities in Ukraine

On May 24, the second webinar in a series of educational workshops was held as part of the “RE-ENERGIZE UKRAINE” Summer School: Preparing to Establish Green Energy Communities.
Participants discussed the legal framework and examples of establishing energy communities, the benefits of using renewable energy sources, and renewable energy technologies.
Chriss Vrettos, Financing Project Manager at REScoop.eu, spoke about the establishment and operations of REScoop.eu—a European federation of energy cooperatives founded in 2013 in Belgium, which today comprises over 2,000 energy cooperatives, representing 1.5 million members.
In his view, by 2025, every other European will produce 45% of their own energy relative to total demand. Chris discussed the specifics of establishing energy communities in Europe, named the largest and most successful ones, and described the legal framework within which they operate.
 
Serhiy Kravchuk, director of KNESS-energy, shared practical insights and experience in implementing business models for electricity consumers who use renewable energy sources in their energy supply.
He believes that in Ukraine, apart from decentralizing the energy supply system, there is no other way forward. Ukraine will definitely move toward a “green” transition. There are positive developments in this regard in current legislation, where a special role is assigned to consumers who are building or have already built generation facilities and have the physical capacity to feed power into the external grid. Serhii described possible business models and highlighted their benefits for consumers.
 
Vyacheslav Komar, from Vinnitsa National Technical University, spoke about renewable energy technologies and highlighted certain factors that must be taken into account to ensure that the implementation of specific technologies yields the desired results. He noted that there are no high-quality means of storing electrical energy, and now, in wartime conditions, storage plays a key role. He presented an atlas of the energy potential of renewable energy sources by region in Ukraine. He outlined the differences between solar, photovoltaic, wind, and thermal power plants. Regarding characteristics, we must compare the results we will obtain and take all conditions into account. He raised an important question about the impact of wind power plants on the environment and their shortcomings.

The lively discussion and numerous questions attested to the speakers’ professionalism, as well as the relevance and popularity of their presentations.

You can view the speakers' presentations here.

You can watch the webinar recording below.