REMP-UP: Renewable Energy Master Plan – Ukrainian Partnership

In these dark days, people in Ukraine need the perspective of a bright future as a member of the EU. A fast-track partnership in the energy sector could help Ukraine recover quickly from the war and accelerate and strengthen the EU membership process.

EU and Ukraine should immediately start to plan a €500bn European investment program in renewable energy sources to be set up in Ukraine.

The idea is similar to the original DESERTEC plans that were widely discussed in the early 2010s, but would be easier to implement due to limited political complexity and geographical scope.

Such a renewable energy partnership for Ukraine and Europe would

a) make use of Ukraine’s vast land mass;

b) boost Ukraine's economy to a new “Wirtschaftswunder” boom;

c) shift the paradigm from EU dependence on Russian gas, oil and coal to renewable Ukrainian/EU wind, solar and power-to-gas energy;

d) fast-forward global climate goals;

e) end Ukraine’s nuclear energy risks.

Scaling up clean energy in densely populated Western Europe is limited by land resources. Ukraine currently has little wind power, despite being well poised as one of the largest countries in Europe, and solar power is just burgeoning thanks to financial incentives by the Ukrainian government. 

With €100bn per year of investment the following could be built in Ukraine

(PER YEAR):

+ 600 square kilometers of solar farms with a total of 60 GWp peak power (€50bn / €830 per kWp)

+ 10,000 wind turbines with a total 30 GW rated power (€30bn / €3m per turbine)

+ €10bn of new power lines (high-voltage direct current “power superhighways”) to directly connect the Ukraine-based facilities to Western European power grids

+ €10bn of power-to-gas facilities to produce carbon neutral synthetic methane gas (with approx. 50% efficiency) from excess electricity in sunny and windy periods. This gas could be transmitted to European gas storage facilities through existing gas pipelines in Ukraine and stored for winter periods.

The resulting peak production power after 5 years (on windy and sunny days) would be 450 GWp. Yearly electric energy production would be around 600 TWh (300 TWh from solar and 300 TWh from wind).

The EU's electric power demand fluctuates roughly between 280 GW and 360 GW and total yearly net electric energy produced in the EU was 2,780 TWh in 2019.

This means that the newly built Ukrainian facilities, on sunny and windy days around noon, would produce far more more green electricity than the entire EU would consume in these peak moments. Excess electricity would be converted to methane and stored for winter periods to be used directly for heating (55% overall efficiency) or gas power plants (35% overall efficiency). Over the course of a year, a significant portion of  Europe’s fossil fuel imports could thus be replaced by green Ukrainian energy.  

The EU could provide the funding for construction (material and labor costs) and Ukraine could provide the land resources and own the facilities. Construction and maintenance / operation could be carried out by Ukrainian workers.

Ukraine could deliver and the EU could buy the energy at rates set for a 20- or 30-year contract (e.g. 12 ct/kWh electricity and 4 ct/kWh gas). These Ukrainian green energy exports would thus have a volume of around €40bn annually.

Please support this petition to help Ukraine become an economic powerhouse in the energy sector.