On the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK has accelerated the company’s development of renewable power across Ukraine.

It may seem counterintuitive, but even in the depths of conflict, Ukraine has powered ahead with renewable sources, not least because windfarms have proved to be harder targets than conventional power stations and a more distributed and localised energy system creates greater energy supply security.

DTEK opened the 114MW Tyligulska Wind Power Plant last spring and is working with Denmark’s Vestas to more than quadruple its capacity over the next two years. It has also unveiled plans to build what would become the country’s largest windfarm (a 650MW project in Poltava, south of Kyiv) a major grids modernisation project for the region around Kyiv and a utility-scale battery storage project to support renewable generation.

Over the past two years, DTEK has suffered over 9,700 attacks on its infrastructure, including almost 160 against its thermal power plants. Such destruction has generally been repaired, but it also means that the push to green solutions is being given an imperative.

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