MOSCOW --
Ukrainian officials say they’ve found a way to protect the nation from Russia: Go green.
Ukraine is seeking U.S. investment in its biomass,
wind and solar power industries. The idea is to userenewable energy to
curb its reliance on fuel imports from Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s
Crimea region last month and has troops massed on the border.
“Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine indeed brought
energy security concerns to the fore,” Olexander Motsyk, Ukraine’s
ambassador to the U.S. said at a renewable-energy conference at his
country’s embassy in Washington yesterday. “I strongly believe the time
has come for U.S. investors to discover Ukraine, especially its energy.”
Yesterday’s event was the start of a “road show” to
highlight Ukraine’s renewable-energy potential, Volodymyr Shalkivski,
the embassy’s first secretary for energy issues, said in an interview.
Future events will be held at Ukraine’s consulates in Chicago, New York
and San Francisco, he said.
Ukraine relies on Russian natural gas for heat and
electric power. U.S. and European officials have been searching for ways
to help Ukraine limit this dependence, including expediting U.S.
approvals of facilities to export liquefied natural gas. Russia will demand Ukraine pay in advance for
natural-gas deliveries in a month unless the latter nation resumes
payments, a move that may lead to disruptions in fuel supplies to
Europe, President Vladimir Putin said yesterday during an annual
televised call-in show.
40,000 Troops
Pro-Russian separatists have seized government
buildings in eastern Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
estimates that 40,000 Russian troops are amassed on the border. The
conflict has sparked the biggest standoff between the U.S. and Russia
since the Cold War, and the U.S. and its European allies have threatened
further sanctions if Russia doesn’t calm the situation.
Talks in Geneva between Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and
the 28-nation EU yesterday ended with an accord to help de-escalate the
conflict, after Putin said he hopes he won’t have to send in troops. As leaders seek to reduce tensions, Ukrainian
officials say one way to replace Russian gas is through
home-grown renewable energy production. Motsyk said the U.S. and the EU
should consider strategic partnerships to invest in the country, while
acknowledging the inherent risk, given the economic and security
climate.
Capital Needed
“The resources are there,” though a major challenge is
attracting capital, Todd Foley, senior vice president for policy and
government relations at the American Council on Renewable Energy, said
at the embassy conference. The Washington-based nonprofit group
co-hosted the event, along with the Energy Industry Research Center, a
Kiev-based consultancy.
According to the research center, biomass and biogas
are the most promising forms of renewable energy for Ukraine, in part
because the nation’s network of electric-power lines and substations
can’t easily adjust to the addition of significant amounts of wind and
solar energy. Biomass may help replace natural gas used in the
nation’s 24,000 boiler plants, officials from the Energy Industry
Research Center said.
Boiler Makers
Vadym Glamazdin, the center’s managing director, said
Ukraine is seeking strategic partnerships with U.S. businesses, though
it hasn’t identified potential companies. Babcock & Wilcox Co.,
based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and closely held Hurst Boiler &
Welding Co. of Coolidge, Georgia, are among companies that make boilers.
Babcock & Wilcox , which didn’t have
representatives at yesterday’s conference, has been working closely with
the Ukrainian government to explore a fuel switch from natural gas to
coal, Patrick Wilson, the company’s director of government affairs for
energy, said in a phone interview. He said the company has proposed a
five-plant pilot project worth $1 billion to convert the fuel.
“The number one reason for making the fuel switch is
to increase the energy security of Ukraine,” Wilson said in a phone
interview. Clean-coal technology can replace some of Ukraine’s
inefficient natural gas plants, providing a bridge to renewable fuels,
he said.
Glamazdin of the Energy Industry Research Center said
Ukraine’s heating supply accounts for about 40 percent of all gas
imported from Russia, which could be replaced with renewable
energy within three to five years. By 2030, renewables could account for about 15 percent
of Ukraine’s electricity supply, up from about 2 percent now, with
adequate investment, he said.
Copyright 2014 Bloomberg
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/04/ukraine-seeks-renewable-energy-investors-to-loosen-russias-grip
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