- Despite the war and significant destruction of the company's energy facilities, DTEK is not giving up on its plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040
- DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko made the point during a speech at COP27 on "Business for decarbonisation: the private sector's response to the global crisis"
Maxim Timchenko said,"DTEK is the largest investor in renewable energy in Ukraine and we will not abandon our plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine is demonstrating the importance of energy independence for security and peace across Europe, and renewable energy will have an increasingly important role to play. We also need to accelerate Ukrainian plans for decarbonisation."
According to Timchenko, Ukraine can become a country that produces 100% clean energy, using nuclear, hydro, wind and solar. Before the war, Ukraine produced 70% of all energy at nuclear plants and another 10% from renewable sources. "We have great potential for wind and solar energy and can become a European center of green energy," Mr. Timchenko emphasised.
He said that DTEK is currently promoting the idea of building new generating capacities in Ukraine to deliver 30 GW of green energy by 2030. He paid particular attention to the decentralisation of the Ukrainian energy system.
"We must install renewable energy sources in many parts of the country. And for flexibility, we need energy storage systems – batteries – on an industrial scale. Eighteen months ago, DTEK launched the first energy storage system in Ukraine with a capacity of one megawatt. Now we are developing the same system so it has a capacity of 20 MW."
The Russian shelling of energy facilities, including power grids, substations and thermal power plants, means the Ukrainian network is facing an electricity shortage. "Ukraine now very much needs the help of international partners in the form of transformers, distribution devices and other equipment for urgent repairs of the energy system."
Timchenko concluded by saying that the best guarantee of Ukraine's security after the war is investment in Ukrainian energy which will, in turn, become a guarantee of European energy security.
Ukrainian pavilion at COP27
For the first time this year, Ukraine has its own pavilion at a COP meeting, where the country is demonstrating the devastating and widespread impact of the war and discussing the country's revival when the war inevitably ends. President Volodymyr Zelensky has also addressed the conference participants.
The pavilion is divided into two blocks, illustrating the consequences of the war on the climate and the vision of the future of Ukraine as one of the guarantor states and participants of the UN climate goals. At the center of the pavilion is an installation in the form of a projectile burst, representing the damage the Russians are causing to Ukrainian cities, towns, villages and the fertile lands.
Inside, more than five hundred cubes with sixteen types of Ukrainian soils were spilled out, providing a graphic reminder of Ukraine's importance for global food stability.
Ukrainian officials are also holding various events to develop the international dialogue on common approaches to calculating the damage and consequences caused by Russian aggression.
