EREF President criticises Ukraine subsidising the ‘traditional sector’

• 11 years ago (2012-12-10)
• Junior Isles

Europe 1061 North America 998 Renewables 751

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Ukraine should move to favour renewable sources of energy and give up subsidies for ‘traditional energy generation’, which still dominates the country’s generation mix, according to Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes, President of the European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF).

In 2012 Ukraine has set aside around UAH10 billion ($1.23 billion) to support coal mines and cover high production costs. Further, the 2012 national budget adds over UAH3 billion to support the construction of coal mining enterprises and their re-equipment.

"The traditional energy sector still enjoys huge financial support both here and around the world... If we look at a report by the International Energy Agency, we'll see that aid to traditional types of energy in 2011 was six times higher than support of renewable energy – these are €540 billion and €85 billion, respectively," he said while visiting Ukraine.

Hinrichs-Rahlwes stated that he felt subsidies were kept in place for the wrong reasons.

"The coal sector in many countries, including Germany, is still receiving support because of concerns about employment," he said.

He claimed that the development of the renewable energy sector should not be feared because it would create jobs to replace those lost from traditional energy.

"Renewable energy had created over 550 000 jobs in 27 EU countries as of the end of 2011," he added.

He further contended that concerns about renewable sources of energy being too high cost were groundless. "Wind farms are now able to compete with coal and gas stations in terms of prices of generated electricity. In Germany, Spain and Portugal, we are now approaching such a situation in the solar energy sector," he stated.

He argued that electricity generated from renewable energy sources continue to fall in price, while the cost of oil has been increasing and has already reached a level of $140 per barrel. "Renewable sources provide price stability. Costs of the construction of solar power plants have decreased by 2.5 times in five years. And the sun, the wind wont' bill us," he added.