Ukraine's energy infrastructure needs a modern-day Marshall Plan, costing as much as $50 billion, to counter the severe impact of Russian attacks and decentralize energy production, Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, the largest private investor in Ukraine's energy sector.
"Our key task must be to decentralise the way Ukraine produces energy, pushing generation away from “soft” military targets like coal-fired power plants and towards smaller, less vulnerable renewable assets," wrote Timchenko in an opinion piece in The Times, of the UK.
He wrote that DTEK, which normally supplies about a quarter of the country's energy, has lost up to 90% of its capacity to Russian attacks in recent months and thousands of workers are now out repairing damage while others "scour eastern Europe for used turbines and transformers that can be sparked back into life."
Also, former energy consumers in Ukraine are becoming energy producers as they install solar, wind and thermal power to cope with regular power outages from Russian attacks, and many companies are bringing in generators from abroad. He said this makes Ukraine a uniquely suitable example that illustrates the advantage of renewable power.
However, major effort and investment is needed in energy storage, he said. His company, for example, is building a "fleet" of batteries "the size of shipping containers" to store the energy generated by renewable means when conditions are good for use when the wind doesn't blow or the sun goes down.
"Pulling off such an audacious Marshall Plan for Ukraine’s energy system will require huge investment — the Kyiv School of Economics puts the cost at $50 billion — that is beyond the capability of a war-ravaged finance sector," he wrote.
"Instead Ukraine must become a magnet for global investment: that means championing market reforms, strengthening safeguards against corruption and creating paths for private Ukrainian companies to access foreign capital at scale," he said.
