President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky created the Council of Experts on Energy Security, the press service of the National Security Council of the country (NSDC) reports. This advisory body is designed to promote the development of alternative energy, including the hydrogen sector.
“(Alexey) Danilov (Secretary of the NSDC. - RT ) informed that in order to ensure effective state response to threats in the field of energy security and determine strategic directions for the development of the state’s fuel and energy complex, the Council of Experts on Energy security, which will be the highest deliberative body for the head of state and the National Security Council of Ukraine on energy issues, ”says the NSDC website.
On June 12, Danilov held a meeting of the working group on the development of the hydrogen economy, which in Ukraine, according to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, has great potential, which must be used by combining the efforts of science, business and government. For this, according to the official, the country has specialists, resources and investors.
Fashionable European Theme
Hydrogen energy is considered one of the promising areas in the development of renewable energy sources (RES). According to the forecast of the research company BloombergNEF (BNEF), with the support of the state and the necessary level of investment in infrastructure, by 2050 most countries will be able to switch to hydrogen production using solar and wind energy, its price will be comparable to the cost of natural gas. Under certain conditions, by then hydrogen will be able to cover about a quarter of the world's energy demand.
Several methods are used to produce hydrogen, including electrolysis of water - its separation into hydrogen and oxygen. Now, scientists are working to reduce the cost of this procedure, which will reduce the price of this resource and make it more attractive to consumers. In particular, the possibility of generating hydrogen using renewable energy sources is being considered - the "excess" energy can be stored not only in more familiar batteries, but also in hydrogen storage systems. The creation of more efficient hydrogen storage methods is a task that scientists are also now solving.
Hydrogen can be used to provide electricity to residential buildings and to refuel vehicles using special fuel cells. Last year, the Strategic Forum for Major Projects (structure under the European Commission) included hydrogen in the list of areas requiring priority political decisions and investments.
However, the lack of generating capacity and high cost compared to traditional energy sources remain serious disadvantages of the hydrogen economy. Large expenditures of business and government will also be required to deploy infrastructure for the hydrogen economy. True, after this, according to the forecast of BloombergNEF, the price of a kilogram of hydrogen for large consumers should decrease to $ 0.8— $ 1.7 (today it is several times higher).
In an interview with RT, Deputy Director of the Institute of National Energy Alexander Frolov noted that the use of hydrogen has become a "fashionable European theme." The expert explained the motivation of Kiev to develop a hydrogen economy with a desire to "be in trend" and demonstrate proximity to developed countries.
“Today in the West it’s quite easy to get financing for research in this area. Perhaps Kiev is counting on some grants and investments. Personally, I am skeptical about the prospects for a hydrogen economy. This topic has been poorly studied, and there is no guarantee that investing in it will produce large-scale practical results. In any case, only rich countries can do such research, and not Ukraine at all, ”says Frolov.
Balance problems
The development of alternative energy is one of the areas of work of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which since March 2020 has been headed by Denis Shmygal. However, for Kiev, the price issue is extremely relevant - the consumer pays much more for green generation than for the energy of nuclear power plants and thermal power plants.
As the Prime Minister of Ukraine stated earlier, "green energy is very good, and sooner or later we must come to it, but it must be cheap, like nuclear."
- Solar power station in Cherkasy
- © cetus.org.ua
On May 14, Shmygal met with and. about. Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection Olga Buslavets and representatives of companies working in the field of renewable energy. At the meeting, the head of the government of Ukraine called on entrepreneurs to reduce the tariff.
“We can’t have the most expensive green energy in Europe in a country with such a poverty level. We are all in the same boat. It cannot be that the country is losing, the budget is losing, and we are paying a higher price for green energy. We do not want to limit investments, we want to understand the cost of this energy, ”said Shmygal.
On June 10, the Ukrainian government approved a Memorandum of Understanding to resolve issues of concern in the field of renewable energy. The document provides for a reduction in green tariffs. Electricity producers using solar energy will have to reduce them by 15%, while using wind energy - by 7.5%. Prior to the adoption of the memorandum, the purchase price of 1 kW produced using renewable energy sources was € 0.18.
The priority attention of the Ukrainian authorities to the development of alternative energy has led to a reduction in the generation of nuclear power plants. According to media reports, the country's Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry expects that in 2020, the generation of electricity at nuclear power plants will halve. Now at four nuclear facilities of Ukraine there are ten power units. Three of them will be put into reserve this year, the rest will start operating at reduced capacity.
However, not everyone in Ukraine sees a benefit in replacing traditional energy sources. In late April, the head of the SBU, Ivan Bakanov, sent a letter to Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmitry Razumkov. In it, he said that over the past two years, green generation in the country has grown more than six times - from 1.18 GW to 6.7 GW. The total share of renewable energy sources as of 2019 in the power department was estimated at 3.6%. However, according to Bakanov, the construction of renewable energy sources is carried out “exclusively from the position of commercial attractiveness of projects, without taking into account the real needs of the united energy system of Ukraine”. Ultimately, the process of development of alternative energy can lead to an imbalance in the country's entire energy system and emergency situations, the head of the SBU warned.
Experts also drew attention to the fact that the energy system of Ukraine is poorly adapted for integration with renewable energy sources.
“Ukraine is experiencing objective difficulties associated with the energy balance and the general state of industry. In such a situation, it makes no sense to develop renewable energy and especially projects related to hydrogen. All this will not work normally while the national economy is in decline. Ukraine needs to solve real problems, and not chase European trends, ”Frolov stated.
- Khmelnitsky NPP
- © Wikimedia Commons
A similar point of view is held by economist Alexander Dudchak. In a RT commentary, he emphasized that Ukraine’s alternative energy will still not be able to completely replace traditional energy resources and occupy a share in the total generation at the level of developed states.
“A Ukrainian company that decides to use renewable energy will not be able to produce inexpensive competitive products. To drastically reduce the cost of renewable energy, decades of sustained development, long-term investment and political stability are needed. But modern Ukraine is deprived of all this, ”summed up Dudchak.