The authorities of Ukraine are going to build in the city of Zolotonosha in the Cherkassy region an innovative TPP operating on plant raw materials. The project will be implemented by the German company Steinmuller Babcock Environment GmbH, which specializes in alternative energy, primarily in the construction of incineration plants. The station will cost the Ukrainian treasury approximately 35-40 million euros. It is planned to put it into operation by 2020.
The station is designed to produce 6-12 MW per year, the generated electricity will be sent to the general energy system of Ukraine. From the Ukrainian side, the project "The boiler-mechanical plant" Parkhomenko "will take part in the project, local media reported..
Fuel for the new TPP will be briquettes from straw. According to Ukrainian experts, this is not only environmentally friendly, but also cheap. After the blockade of the uncontrolled regions of Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts, supplies of anthracite to local power stations ceased. Ukraine does not want to buy gas and coal in Russia. There is simply no money for overseas fuel. A straw raw material literally lies underfoot: the Cherkassy region is an agrarian region, and after harvesting huge straw stacks remain lying in fields without work. Specialists estimated that at TPP it would be necessary to burn 450-500 tons of fuel daily.
For a greater effect in Cherkasy region, it is planned to cultivate a so-called energy vine - a special plant with increased energy output. This is the responsibility of the Kiev company "Ukrteplo". At the moment, other sources of biofuels are being considered, for example, "energy willow".
Russian experts doubt that something worthwhile will come from the Ukrainian venture, notes L! Fe. According to Ivan Kapitonov, associate professor of the department of international commerce at the Graduate School of Corporate Governance of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ivan Kapitonov, Ukraine will have to plant an energy vine throughout its territory in order to grow enough fuel to generate electricity. Cherkasy agronomists plan to collect 70 tons of vines per hectare instead of 30 tons of grain, but the vine grows several years, so the cycle increases several times. In addition, the vine must be dried before consumption to make firewood.
"The caloric content of brushwood leaves much to be desired. It can not be compared with the calorific value of steam coal. The need for dried vine will be ten times higher than in coal. This project can be assessed as a hoax, "- said Kapitonov.
Director of the Energy Development Fund Sergei Pikin believes that the project is possible to realize - but only by raising tariffs for the population, or by subsidizing these same tariffs. Kiev is unlikely to have enough money to subsidize. Most likely, the EU will allocate the funds within the framework of promoting renewable energy projects.
As noted in the report of the German Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, the throwing aside of biofuels is dictated not only by the desire to get rid of dependence on Russian gas and coal, but also by Ukraine's obligations to increase the share of renewable sources in the national energy balance to 2020 by 11%.
Specifically for this, the law was amended on the "green tariff". On it, wholesale buyers are obliged to purchase electricity produced using alternative sources. The rate of the "green tariff" is now 12.39 euro cent per kilowatt / hour.
The usual tariff is much lower - from 6 euro cents per kilowatt / hour, depending on the type of energy carrier.
Not so long ago, the rate of the "green tariff" was reduced due to the fact that it was expensive for the state budget to subsidize it: the difference between the "green" and the "traditional" tariff for consumers, as a rule, is filled by the state. Thus, the authorities are trying to spur the development of alternative sources of electricity. Projects like that of straw TPP help Kiev to solve this problem.