The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is working on the launch of the bioenergy program in Ukraine in 2019, under which it is planned to finance around 10 or 15 projects for the amount of EUR 70-80 million, EBRD Associate Director for Energy Efficiency and Climate Change in Ukraine, Poland and Caucasus Sergiy Maslichenko has said at the 10th Sustainable Energy Forum (SEF) 2018.
“Understanding that solar and wind energy are developing normally, we focused primarily on bioenergy. And here we are talking not only about bioenergy plants, but about the entire chain – from the field to the end user. Ukraine, as an agrarian country, has large production residues, but now they remain in the fields, and therefore we are working on such a project,” he said.
Maslichenko said that the program will be financed jointly with the Global Environment Facility, as well as the Clean Technology Fund.
“We hope to launch the program next year. To do this, we attract donor co-financing – Global Environment Facility. In addition, there is a Clean Technology Fund and, of course, the bank will provide its own funds. We expect that the total funding of the program will be about EUR 70- 80 million,” he said.
The representative of the bank said that at present the project is at a preliminary stage of consideration.
He said that due to the current logistical problems in Ukraine in the field of bioenergy, part of the projects of the program will be aimed at solving them. Also, attention will be paid to projects on biomass, second-generation bioethanol, biogas, including bio methane.
“Regarding the latter, this is a new topic. We intend to work on improving the regulatory field in this area. We see the potential for our partners in the agricultural sector to prepare for these projects soon, and we will eventually help them with grants. These projects are more complex, they may take two to three years, but the systemic substantial work has already begun,” he said.
As reported, earlier Maslichenko said that the EBRD hopes to organize financing of up to 20 bioenergy projects in Ukraine in coming four years.
