Embassy of Norway in Ukraine, NGO EasyBusiness present a road map for small hydropower plants

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Road map is a set of recommendation for foreign and local investors and also for the Ukrainian government, which the same time encourages more green energy production.

Kyiv, June 17, 2016. Ukrainian and Norwegian experts drew up a report on small hydroelectric power plants development in Ukraine. It was presented in the form of a road map and intended, first of all, for potential investors. The report also contains recommendation of government aimed at improving regulatory field in the sphere. The main objective of the report to provide phased recommendation on building small and medium power stations in Ukraine, said Richard Nygaard Scarborough, Deputy Head of Mission at the Royal Norwegian Embassy at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “This project will help investors understand what environment is available in Ukraine and how the legislation and the market function. It is very useful to have such a book describing it all in English which can help potential investors to assess risks. It also contains a number of recommendations for Ukrainian authorities,” he said.
Kateryna Busol, senior lawyer at NGO EasyBusiness, said that best practices of the USA, Norway and Germany were used for drawing up the report to clearly define gaps in Ukrainian legislation and understand the ways to facilitate and improve the environment for hydropower development in Ukraine. “We could see that at least two years are required only to launch a hydropower project from scratch. Then you have to visit 21 governmental bodies and receive permits. This is too much. There are risks as well, as the green tariff introduction procedure is not transparent. Other procedures are overburdened and non-transparent too. The front-end system is ill-conceived: an investor is to submit all the documents to one body, which required a lot of resource to digest them,” explained Busol. She added that the report consists of sections: healthcare, safety, development and all the other elements a developer must know to grow its business. There is also an interactive map showing where it is possible to locate projects. “We considered the existing situation in Ukraine and tried to understand how potential investors can maneuver in Ukrainian landscape in the field on existing possibilities and requirements. We based our recommendations on this, providing advice on possible improvements. This information will be especially useful for small-scale investors,” said а Arne Jakobsen, founder and CEO of Blaafall hydro energy company from Norway.

Serhiy Porovskyi, former advisor to the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine, emphasized that there is a special tariff for this type of renewal sources of energy. “Green tariff in Ukraine is extremely attractive. It in some way offsets the risks arising when investing in Ukraine. All we need to achieve are clear and stable rules of the game. This is the main focus of our work,” said   Porovskyi. He is also convinced that hydroelectric power plants are only the beginning. We need to make the same product for wind, solar and biomass energy.

The road map for small hydropower development will be published on June 21.