While US President Donald Trump is bribing wind stakeholders to stop building wind farms in the US, Ukraine is doubling down on its wind energy profile even as Russia continues to hurl missiles at its civilian infrastructure. The nation’s leading energy provider, DTEK Group, has accepted a grant from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, aimed at supporting the first steps towards a massive new 650-megawatt project sporting up to 100 wind turbines. The question is, why? Why Wind? That’s a good question. Ever since launching its murderous rampage through Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russia has made a practice of targeting Ukraine’s vulnerable thermal power plants for destruction. Wind farms are not quite so vulnerable. Where fossil fuel power plants are comprised of centralized generating stations, wind farms are characterized by slim, widely spaced turbines, requiring many more missiles to inflict significant damage on the generating element. DTEK Group was making the case for the resiliency of wind power during wartime soon after Russia launched its full-on war on February 24, 2022, and the company has been putting its words into action. In May of 2023 DTEK commenced operations at Phase I of the new Tyligulska Wind Power Plant near the Black Sea in the Mykolaiv region. The a 19-turbine, 114-megawatt array sits just 60 miles from the front line. While the Tyligulska wind farm may seem like a sitting duck, DTEK was already in the process of ordering 64 turbines from the Danish manufacturer Vestas, to complete Phase II. “When fully built out to a total of 500 megawatts in capacity, Tyligulska will be the largest wind farm in Eastern Europe, producing about 1.7 terawatt-hours of zero emission electricity per year,” CleanTechnica reported at the time. Tyligulska is also remarkable as the only wind farm of its size to be built in a war zone, as described by DTEK. In addition, DTEK notes that the Phase II financing of €450 million is the largest investment of private dollars into the Ukrainian energy sector since the nation first gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991. Norway Lends A Hand DTEK has not been sitting on its hands since then. As a branch of the System Capital Management firm helmed by Ukrainian entrepreneur Rinat Akhmetov, DTEK still has a firm grip on conventional fuels. However, DTEK has also positioned its renewable energy ventures as the key to a European Union future for Ukraine. “These new decentralised projects will strengthen Ukraine’s energy resilience while contributing to European energy security and the clean energy transition, supporting deeper integration with EU energy markets and meeting the priorities of ESG‑focused investors,” DTEK says of its ongoing expansion of the Tyligulska wind farm alongside a new 200-megawatt energy storage system in the works. The latest addition to the company’s renewable energy roster is a massive 650-megawatt array of wind turbines to be constructed in Poltavska, in the central part of the country. That’s where aid from Norway comes in. “The project is a key element in decentralising the country’s energy system, strengthening resilience and supporting Ukraine’s integration with EU energy standards,” DTEK emphasized in a press statement. In March, Norad (the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation) agreed to fund preliminary work on the Poltavska array with a grant of €487,000 (about $570,431 USD). The funds are earmarked for geological and engineering surveys, as well as documentation leading to the start of construction. “With more than 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure damaged and reconstruction costs estimated at $91 billion by the World Bank, international support of this kind remains essential,” DTEK notes. Another Wind Farm Rises In Ukraine, And Hydropower, Too The outside help is essential, and the Polttavska grant is just part of an €8 million ($9.37 billion USD) grant from Norway to support private sector investment in renewable energy and other sectors in Ukraine. The effort includes reducing risk for companies operating in Ukraine during the war, with the funds provided through Norad’s Nansen Support Programme. On its part, DTEK has committed to an investment totaling €1.2 billion ($1.40 billion USD) for the Poltavska project through its subsidiary DTEK Renewables. That’s significant uptick in the company’s scale of investment in the Ukrainian economy, which it calculates at €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion USD) since Russia launched its attack in 2022. In a further sign of growing energy relations with Norway, on April 9 the Embassy of Ukraine in the Kingdom of Norway and Iceland recapped a meeting between Ukrainian Ambassador Oleksiy Gavrysh and Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal, the CEO of the leading Norwegian energy developer Statkraft. “During the meeting, the parties discussed prospects for cooperation in the energy sector, with a particular focus on exchanging expertise in supply chain resilience, countering cybersecurity threats and strengthening the physical protection of energy infrastructure, including measures to address drone-related threats,” the Embassy recounted. “In addition, Oleksiy Gavrysh outlined Ukraine’s significant hydropower potential, particularly in its western regions, and noted opportunities for establishing dialogue with relevant stakeholders in Ukraine’s hydropower sector,” they added. Ukraine Seeks A Future In The EU If you caught that thing about the western regions, that supports Ukraine’s pitch for EU membership, based on its ability to contribute a substantial amount of renewable energy to the European grid. Hydropower was not previously on the CleanTechnica radar, but Ukraine’s green recovery plan did surface in June of 2021, including plans to produce and export green hydrogen to Europe. Those plans are continuing to move forward under the umbrella of the firm Hydrogen Ukraine, which has a water electrolysis facility in the works at an initial capacity of 100 megawatts. Stage 1 includes 120 megwatts of solar power and 80 megawatts of wind power to run the facility. The plan is to export green hydrogen — pushed from water by the electrolyzers — by pipeline to a steelmaker in Kosice, Slovakia (see more green hydrogen background here). “With abundant water resources, optimal PV, and wind power configuration H2 production is strategically located near the EU border,” Hydrogen Ukraine summarizes. The latest development involves another partnership, with Austria. Last year the Austrian energy storage firm RAG drew attention to the opportunities revealed in a new green hydrogen feasibility study. “The study confirms that western Ukraine – due to its excellent wind and PV resources, sufficient water availability and access to existing transnational gas infrastructure – offers ideal conditions for the production of green hydrogen, which can be exported to European markets via existing pipelines,” RAG summarized. “As the EU’s eastern neighbour, western Ukraine can play a key role in the development of the European Hydrogen Backbone’s eastern import corridor, making the region a strategically important location and an essential component of the European energy system’s transition,” the firm emphasized. As a followup, last month Ukraine and Austria entered into a new, collaborative green hydrogen partnership, covering investment as well as production capacity and infrastructure. Meanwhile, back here in the USA…oh, never mind!!! Photo: The leading Ukrainian energy firm DTEK Group is building a new 100-turbine, 650-megawatt wind farm to help improve resiliency as Russia continues to attack conventional thermal power plants (cropped, courtesy of DTEK).