Chairman of the State Energy Efficiency of Ukraine Serhiy Savchuk and Ambassador of Switzerland to Ukraine Claude Wild discussed the possibilities for deepening cooperation between the two countries in the field of energy efficiency, clean energy and energy waste disposal.
Among the priorities of the partnership are the reduction and replacement of gas consumption.
In particular, S. Savchuk informed Mr. Wild about the current programs to stimulate the population and budgetary institutions to implement energy efficient measures, incl. through the mechanism of co-financing "warm loans", ESCO, energy management. This is a "win-win policy" from which everyone benefits: government, consumers, business.
In addition, bioenergy projects jointly with Switzerland are being implemented in Ukrainian cities.
For example, in 2016 in Vinnitsa, with the support of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland (SECO), a 23.2 MW boiler room was modernized, where two solid fuel boilers with a capacity of 2.6 MW, operating on chips, were installed. The boiler room provides heat and hot water to the entire city district. The potential for gas replacement due to the boiler house and other implemented energy efficiency measures is about 5.2 million cubic meters per year.
With the support of SECO, another project is being implemented in Zhitomir to install a cogeneration plant using wood chips with a capacity of 1.2 MW of electric power and 7.1 MW of thermal power.
In addition, the parties discussed the legislative initiatives developed by the State Energy Efficiency Agency with partners on:
- development of the liquid biofuel market in Ukraine;
- introduction of an electronic trading system for solid biofuels;
- stimulating industrial energy efficiency;
- energy waste disposal.
Following the meeting, the parties agreed to work out in detail potential ways of partnership, including:
- opportunities to attract technical assistance to develop high-quality feasibility studies for gas replacement projects;
- use of Swiss experience, technologies and investments in projects of "clean" energy, energy efficiency and "waste-to-energy" in Ukraine;
- development of public-private partnerships in the above-mentioned areas;
- improving the energy efficiency of the district heating system in Ukrainian cities;
- development of joint financial instruments for the preparation of bankable projects in the above areas.
