The reports that the Russians dismantled and removed one of the largest Ukrainian SPPs, Green Energy Tokmak in Zaporizhia region, are not true, its co-owner Oleksandr Repkin told Forbes. The station is working, but suffered significant damage.
On June 23, Zaporizhian mass media spread reports that the Russian occupiers dismantled and removed Green Energy Tokmak solar power plant, located in Zaporizhia region near the city of Tokmak. The capacity of this station is 64 MW, which makes it the third largest SPP in Ukraine. This news was shared by many Ukrainian news outlets. Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration initially denied the rumours, but later confirmed that the occupiers were trying to "tacitly" take away the solar power plant property.
Dismantling of such a station is not easy, says Oleksandr Donchenko, analyst of the Ukrainian Renewable Energy Association. "It takes weeks, not days," he says. The task of transporting panels is no less difficult. "Special equipment is needed for transportation. You can't just pile the panels in a truck," says Donchenko.
Forbes contacted the power plant co-owner, special representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for economic diplomacy Oleksandr Repkin, to confirm or deny the reports about the power plant dismantling. He denied this information. "I don't know who invented this fake," he says. "We carried out the repair on our own and removed damaged equipment to avoid a fire."
On February 27, the Russians entered Tokmak. The solar power plant, located near the city and a former military airfield, has been at the firing line for some time. According to Repkin, the station was partially destroyed due to shelling by Grads and other weapons.
Due to the damage, the station lost about 20% of its power. Now it operates at a capacity of about 40 MW, says Repkin. The special representative tentatively estimated the damage at €8 million.
Investments in the SPP construction and the new transformer substation amounted to €68 million. The construction of the station took almost two years. The first phase of the power plant was commissioned in 2018. "Our station is one of the key transformer substations in the area," says Repkin. Now electricity from the station goes into the Ukrainian power grid, supplying the city of Tokmak. Electricity from the station is also supplied to the Prymorskyi and Pryazovskyi districts of Zaporizhia region.
For the generated electricity, the company receives 68 kopecks per kW, while before the war the tariff was UAH 12 per kW. At the end of March, the Ministry of Energy limited payments to producers of electricity from renewable energy sources for the period of the martial law. This money is enough to maintain operation of the station and partly to pay salaries.
The company planned to launch a wind power plant with a capacity of 60 MW at a cost of €72 million in Zaporizhia region in August this year. "We purchased €40 million worth of equipment from Vestas. We are currently negotiating to have them use this equipment in another project," he says.
At the beginning of 2022, the installed capacity of renewable energy in Ukraine totalled 9.5 GW, and the amount of investments in the industry exceeded $12 billion, according to the Ukrainian Renewable Energy Association. Almost two-thirds of the installed capacities, according to the Association, is located in or near the areas where hostilities.
About 70% of the country's wind energy and more than 50% of solar energy capacities are concentrated in the south of Ukraine, says Volodymyr Omelchenko, Razumkov Centre energy programmes director. Some of these stations, such as the SES in Tokmak, are under occupation, damaged by shelling or captured. "Each such case must be recorded and sued to Russia for compensation at future trials," says Omelchenko.
After the publication, some details were removed from the text so as not to harm the station employees.
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