Non-traditional sources of energy may be key to Ukraine's future (04/30/00)

Non-traditional sources of energy may be key to Ukraine's future

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The lone office of the government-run Institute of Non-Traditional Energy Engineering is found in a sparse and dimly lit building in the shadow of a giant water tower near Kyiv's central hot water-generating plant. The building needs repair, the halls are bare, the office furniture is old and worn.

Literally and in a figurative sense, it is a long way from the institute to downtown Kyiv, with its granite buildings and marble halls, where government power and decision-making authority are found.

Once looked at with keen interest, a Ukrainian government choked by money shortages has cast aside any serious work on the development of non-traditional renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, as an alternative to its primary reliance on atomic energy.

Ukraine has made much of the West's delays in providing financing to complete two traditional and controversial new reactors that Kyiv wants completed to offset the power that will be lost when Chornobyl shuts down at the end of this year. However, there are those here and in ecologically minded countries such as Germany who believe that Ukraine has no recourse but to reconsider non-traditional energy sources as well, which could do the work of the nuclear power plants as efficiently and with none of the risk.

One such person is the institute's director, Viktor Shulha, a gray-haired, 60-something scientist with a strong belief that Ukraine must turn to wind and solar power to meet its energy demands. Mr. Shulha said he has been frustrated in his attempts to turn the government's ear to his cause by the most familiar of laments in Ukraine: there simply is no money for it.

Mr. Shulha became the director of the Institute of Energy Engineering when it was formed 10 years ago by the Ministry of Energy, and at one time had an extensive group of advisors and experts. The team already had developed recommendations and a plan for developing wind energy when it came up against the insurmountable wall of Ukraine's current economic reality.

"We decided that for Ukraine the best potential would be to develop wind and biomass sources, and the government put the accent on wind energy. But, as it turned out, Ukraine had no finances and the experts moved on," said Mr. Shulha.

Today Mr. Shulha singlehandedly keeps the candle burning in the government and awaits the day when the situation may change.

His institute is not without its accomplishments. Currently there are eight government-run wind energy plants operating in Ukraine: four in Crimea, and individual plants on the Sea of Azov, near the city of Mariupol in the Donetsk Oblast, near the city of Mykolaiv and in the Carpathian Mountains near the city of Truskavets.

All except the Truskavets power-generating plant are located in regions along the country's southern seashores, and for obvious reasons: wind is most abundantly produced in open areas such as on large body of water.

Currently the plants run on the energy generated by 200 windmills and produce a total of 12.5 megawatts annually, a small amount when compared to the energy production of one Chornobyl reactor, which is capable of churning out 1,000 megawatts per year.

The meager energy output of the wind-powered plants is not a deficiency in the ability of wind to perform as a potent supplier of energy, but a direct result of the government's failure to embrace the new technology, Mr. Shulha explained. He said that if his institute's plans were fully developed, wind energy could supply Ukraine with nearly one-third of its energy needs by the year 2030.

"A wind power station of 100 windmills could produce sufficient energy to supply the needs of a city of 300,000, a city such as Zhytomyr," added Mr. Shulha.

He noted that the winds off the Sea of Azov are sufficient to provide 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts of power for the country, or the equivalent of energy produced by between two and three nuclear reactors.

Europeans promote alternate energy

Studies done by some European organizations advocating non-traditional energy development support Mr. Shulha's assertions. The Stockholm Institute of Economic Science has predicted that by 2050 nearly 50 percent of all energy production could be from wind sources, while the European Wind Energy Association estimated in a February 1998 report that after 2040 oil and gas resources will begin to fall dramatically.

While admitting that initial costs for the development of wind energy plants are higher than those for nuclear reactors or traditional coal-burning thermal energy plants, Mr. Shulha maintained that when costs are spread over the life of the three types of energy sources, wind power proves cheaper.

He explained that one wind power plant producing 1,000 megawatts annually would save Ukraine $1.2 billion over a thermal or nuclear plant of similar capacity during a 25-year time span because a wind generating plant costs much less to maintain and does not need to be fueled.

The electrical engineer and energy production specialist said he believes that, because of its severe energy dependence on Russia and archaic electrical production technology, Ukraine must consider not only wind energy, but all the various alternative, non-traditional energy sources - ones that are widely accepted and utilized in such European countries as Germany, Austria and Denmark.

He said Ukraine has the ability and natural elements to develop biomass and solar energy technologies, but that for economic and commercial reasons it continues to ignore them.

"We have determined that we could utilize solar energy for such things as hot water generation for six months of the year at a great savings to the government," explained Mr. Shulha. "I wanted to attempt this, but they won't listen. And energy firms don't need this, the more energy they sell, the more money they make."

Hopeful about future prospects

Mr. Shulha, although frozen out for the moment, has a basis for believing that once Ukraine gets on its economic feet his work will finally make an imprint on Ukraine's energy sector.

He said that while Chornobyl is a political issue right now, which is being used as a tool to obtain international funding for the development of other energy sources, the resolution of the problem could include plans for the reinvigoration of his projects, especially if the Germans continue to push Ukraine that way.

He also finds comfort in knowing that a national program continues to exist on the official level and that an executive order on non-traditional energy alternatives has not been rescinded.

"We have the presidential decree, which is helping us to continue our work, but the politicians ignore us because they think that our work is exotic," said Mr. Shulha. "So we wait for money, perhaps from the international community.

Although he is not a young man, Mr. Shulha said he understands that he will need patience and time to see his projects through and is ready to wait. "I have come to accept that the only thing that moves quickly in Ukraine is talk," he said.

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