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ODESA, Ukraine – Giants hold the wind with their big hands, helping to keep the lights on in Ukraine – windmills that were recently built on the plains of the Black Sea.
In the 15-month war, Russia has launched countless missiles and drones that have hit power plants, hydroelectric dams and substations, trying to destroy Ukraine as much as possible in a campaign to go after the country. . The new Tyligulska wind farm stands only a few dozen miles from the Russian artillery, but the Ukrainians say it has a crucial advantage over most of the country’s fields.
A single well-placed missile could destroy a heavy-duty power plant, but Ukrainian officials say doing the same to windmills, each hundreds of feet from the other, would require dozens of missiles. . A wind farm can be temporarily shut down by striking a substation or transmission line, but this is much easier to repair than a power plant.
“This is a response to Russia,” said Maksym Timchenko, chief executive of DTEK Group, the company that is building the turbines, in the southern Mykolaiv region, the first phase of what is planned to be the largest wind farm in Eastern Europe. “This is the most profitable energy and, as we know today, the safest energy.”
Ukraine has had legislation since 2014 to promote the transition to renewable energy, to reduce dependence on Russian energy imports and because it is profitable. But that transition is still a long way off, and the war makes the outlook – like everything about Ukraine’s future – bleak.
By 2020, 12 percent of Ukraine’s electricity will come from renewable sources, almost half a percent for the European Union. The Tyligulska project plans call for 85 turbines producing up to 500 megawatts of electricity, enough for 500,000 apartments – an impressive output for a wind farm, but less than 1 percent of the country’s pre-war generating capacity.
After the Kremlin begins a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the need for new resources becomes acute. Russia has bombed Ukraine’s power plants and cut off natural gas shipments, causing some damage.
Russian occupation forces have seized a large part of the country’s resources, ensuring that output does not reach areas still held by Ukraine. They hold the largest single generator, the 5,700-megawatt Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has repeatedly broken down during the war and stopped delivering energy to the grid. They also control 90 percent of Ukraine’s renewable energy plants, which are concentrated in the southeast.
The post-war recovery plan that Ukraine has presented to the European Union – which it hopes to join – and other supporters includes a new commitment to clean energy.
“The war is slowing us down,” said Hanna Zamazeeva, head of the Ukrainian government’s energy efficiency agency, which supports the construction of wind farms.
But energy and economic analysts say much of the hoped-for green transition will have to wait until after reconstruction begins and foreign investment returns, and could depend on Ukrainian success on the battlefield.
“The development of renewable energy, especially wind and solar, depends on Ukraine successfully seizing the territory” currently held by Russia, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported in December. “The level of damage in the area could hinder investment or new development, as infrastructure such as roads and network networks may need to be rebuilt. Current installations may have been damaged.
Southern Ukraine’s wind power potential was clear at the project’s opening ceremony this month as hot, dry air blew past wheat fields filled with huge turbines. Amid tables covered with snacks, linen rustling in the wind, the assembled diplomats and journalists had to turn their backs to the dust.
The three-bladed turbine in Tyligulska, made by the Danish company Vestas, is huge, carving circles in the air more than 500 feet in diameter. Each windmill weighs about 800 tons.
The first turbine was built in February 2022, the month the invasion began, and then DTEK froze construction. But in August, Evheniy Moroz, the company’s site manager, received a call from the director, who asked if he could continue work without international contractors, who had all been evacuated, bringing heavy equipment.
“I started calling the people I work with to find out where they are, whether the contractor is still operating, and whether there is a crane that can lift 100 tons still in Ukraine,” said Mr. Moroz.
He found only one, and it needed renovation, but this crane was his only hope. The builder modified the crane for the project and started calling it “the little dragon”. With that, construction started again.
Builders work in open fields about 60 miles from the front line, hiding in bunkers as air raid sirens sound. Missiles fired from Russian ships in the Black Sea rumbled overhead but did not target the site. Cruise missiles fly lower than turbines, trying to evade radar detection by Ukrainian air defenses.
This is a modest step towards energy security and a green transition, but the new windmill means more speed for Ukraine, said Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region.
“The construction of this wind power plant is a possible signal during the war,” he said. “The project must exist for the freedom of our country.”
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