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25 May 2020, Brussels – Today eight industry leading companies, SolarPower Europe and WindEurope have launched “Choose Renewable Hydrogen”, a joint initiative highlighting the crucial role of renewables to ensure a sound economic recovery, aligned with the European Green Deal. Signatories called on the European Commission to make the right choices for Europe’s upcoming energy system integration and hydrogen strategy, harvesting the full potential of renewable electricity to fully decarbonise Europe. The initiative urges that, amidst the COVID-19 health crisis and its economic implications, Europe prioritises the most efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective pathways to decarbonise its economy. Direct electrification will be the primary means for decarbonising heating and road transport, but there are other hard-to-abate sectors – such as some heavy industry, long-haul road transport, aviation, and shipping – where direct electrification is insufficient. Here...
On May 21, 2020, а group of international RES investors with cumulative portfolio of renewable power plants exceeding 2 GW installed capacities, called on the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmuhal and Acting Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection Olha Buslavets to sign the Memorandum of Understanding between RES investors and the Ministry (“Memorandum”) as soon as possible. The open investors’ letter presents a consolidated position of RES producers on reducing the “green” tariff, ensuring an effective dialogue with the Government and finding a compromise with further incorporation of the agreed proposals in the Memorandum. The Ukrainian Wind Energy Association, that represents 100% of wind energy producers, fully supports the position of the international investment community expressed in the joint letter. Investor's letter reflects a serious and considered decision on ensuring the sustainable operation of renewable energy facilities. The UWEA believes that...
18 May 2020 the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association in partnership with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a leading international law firm, and Asters, one of the largest law firm in Ukraine, held the webinar "RES investors in Ukraine: what protection can investment arbitration offer to them?". The webinar speaker's panel included experienced experts in renewable energy and international arbitration: Noah Rubins QC, partner of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, head of international arbitration practice group in Paris, head of global CIS/Russia dispute resolution practice group; Markiyan Kliuchkovskyi, partner at Asters, head of international arbitration and cross-border litigation practice group; Yaroslav Petrov, partner at Asters, co-head of energy, natural resources and construction practice group, member of international arbitration and cross-border litigation practice group; Mariia Puchyna, associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Within the webinar more than 80 online...
On the occasion of this year's 20th anniversary of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), the Berlin-based Think-and-Do Tank Energy Watch Group (EWG) presents a legislative proposal to stimulate the system integration of renewable energy. The underlying purpose of the policy proposal is to allow renewable energy sources to finally assume responsibility for the system security of the power supply – i.e. to cover the required energy demand at every hour of the year. With a so-called combined power plant tariff, the instrument intends to stimulate investments for full demand coverage by 100% renewable energy. Based on own techno-economic cost estimates and a legal examination of EU regulations, the EWG proposes a fixed-feed-in-tariff of 8 cents/kWh, supported by a sliding market premium. While renewables keep setting records in terms of their shares of national electricity mixes – Germany has recently hit the 50% mark –, a full transformation to an entirely renewable-based...
International Energy Agency (“IEA”) published the annual “Global Energy Review 2020. The impact of COVID-19 crisis on global energy demand and CO2 emissions”. The Covid-19 pandemic represents the biggest shock to the global energy system in more than seven decades, with the drop in demand this year set to dwarf the impact of the 2008 financial crisis and result in a record annual decline in carbon emissions of almost 8%. The Global Energy Review’s projections of energy demand and energy-related emissions for 2020 are based on assumptions that the lockdowns implemented around the world in response to the pandemic are progressively eased in most countries in the coming months, accompanied by a gradual economic recovery. Key findings: Energy demand will fall 6% in 2020 – seven times the decline after the 2008 global financial crisis. In absolute terms, the decline is unprecedented – the equivalent of losing the entire energy demand of India, the world’s third largest...
On April 28, 2020, the President of Ukraine signed the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Some Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Turnover of Agricultural Land” (No 552-IX) which the Verkhovna Rada adopted on March 31, 2020. The main provisions of the adopted bill include: The opening of the land market is scheduled for July 1, 2021. Until January 1, 2024, only individuals who are Ukrainian citizens will be eligible to buy land. The sale of land in one hand in the first two years after the start of the land reform is limited to 100 hectares. As of January 1, 2024, Ukrainian legal entities will be allowed to buy land at a concentration of no more than 10 thousand hectares (There is no restriction of 10.000 ha of agricultural land for Banks). Admission of foreigners to the purchase of land on the territory of Ukraine will be possible only after the relevant decision is taken through a national referendum. Agricultural...
On April 6, 2020, Public Union Ukrainian Wind Energy Association appealed to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal and to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Razumkov to facilitate the adoption of priority legal and regulatory acts to address the challenges of the Ukrainian renewable energy sector and the appointment of a Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine. Last year marked a decade of renewable energy development in Ukraine and became a record for the national wind energy sector. The absence of the Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection hampers the further industry development and finding solutions to the problems that have arisen in the national RES market including in particular, stable operation of energy system and financial situation of SE “Guaranteed Buyer”. One of the attempts to work out compromise solutions for both government and industry was negotiations between two...
Implementation of wind energy projects, in particular those in the construction phase, under quarantine-related restrictions imposed in the country - this was the main topic of UWEA`s webinar “Legal aspects of force majeure provision for RES projects in the context of Coronavirus outbreak” conducted on 2 April 2020. The webinar began with the presentation of Andriy Konechenkov, Vice-President of the WWEA and Chairman of the UWEA Board, who presented world trends and key forecasts by international organizations on the development of the renewable energy sector, both in the world and in the European Union in particular. Speaker focused on recent Reports of international organizations such as REN21, GWEC, IRENA and WindEurope. In his presentation, Andriy Konechenkov stressed the key role of wind energy in the global energy transition and in combating climate change. Mr. Andriy started his presentation with the words of IEA Executive Director Dr. Fatih Birol, who...
On March 30, 2020, REN 21, a think tank and a multistakeholder governance group which is focused on renewable energy policy, has presented its Renewables Global Status Report 2019. The Report describes the status of global renewable energy in 2018-2019, and further prospects for a global “green” energy transition. The Report also presents general trends in RES sector as of the beginning of 2019, describes the process of managing the energy transition with a detailed explanation of the pace of its development. Key findings: Nowadays, renewable energy is a main element of the global power generation structure which plays a key role in reducing carbon emissions from both the industrial sector and individual consumers. In many regions, the sources of RES are becoming more competitive, accessible and cheap for use and maintenance, and its further development is no longer dependent only on the financial capabilities of the advanced countries. In 17 countries, the RES capacities...
On March 14, 2020, on the International Energy Agency (“IEA”) website was published an article by the IEA Executive Director Dr. Fatih Birol on the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human life and health, the functioning of the national world economies and potential methods of countering the virus. The coronavirus is turning into an unprecedented international crisis, with serious repercussions for people’s health and economic activity. As governments respond to these interlinked crises, they must not lose sight of a major challenge of our time: clean energy transitions. Because, the threat posed by climate change, which requires us to reduce global emissions significantly this decade, will remain. Governments are drawing up stimulus plans in an effort to counter the economic damage from the coronavirus. These stimulus packages offer an excellent opportunity to ensure that the essential task of building a secure and sustainable energy future doesn’t get lost amid the...
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