DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, has officially opened a wind farm just 60 miles (100km) from the front line of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Phase I of the Tyligulska wind farm, in the Southern region of Mykolaiv, is already generating green power. The plant’s 19 turbines have an installed capacity of 114 MW.
The decision to build Tyligulska was taken in 2020 as part of DTEK’s strategy to expand its renewables portfolio. DTEK has invested $200 million in the construction of this first phase. The project is one of the first to deploy 6 MW Enventus turbines from Danish manufacturer Vestas.
Ground was broken in late 2021 and the first wind turbine was erected in December 2021. However, DTEK halted construction with six turbines installed, after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Foreign partners were forced to evacuate staff and equipment.
By summer 2022, with financial support from DTEK shareholder Rinat Akhmetov, work resumed with an all-Ukrainian crew of 650 people at its peak. Staff worked in bullet proof vests and spent over 300 hours in bomb shelters between August 2022 and April this year, under the constant threat of missile strikes.
In one and a half years, the team installed 114MW of generating capacity, which DTEK described as twice the usual speed for a project on this scale.
Rinat Akhmetov said: “Eleven years ago, we started building green energy in Ukraine. We started to change the energy system of the country. Since then, despite all the obstacles, we never changed course, having invested more than 1 billion euros in solar and wind farms. In 2022, we had big plans to build a new Tyligulska wind power plant. However, the Russian invasion temporarily halted the project. Today I want to say: we made a decision to resume the construction of the wind power plant and the first stage of the station started working at full capacity. The war will not stop us. We continue to create jobs, pay taxes, generate electricity, restore grids, fight for our energy independence and invest in the future. We will win the war”.
DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko said: “The Tyligulska wind farm is a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian attempts to freeze Ukraine into submission. With projects like Tyligulska, we can build Ukraine back greener and cleaner and become a key partner in Europe’s energy future. And by developing an infrastructure based on distributed rather centralised generation, we are creating an energy supply that is more resilient and stable.”
“DTEK is getting ready for the construction of stage II. The company will continue to contribute to the implementation of Ukraine’s strategy to build 30 GW of RES capacity by 2030.”
Phase II plans will add up to 64 turbines to raise the potential output to 500 MW, boosting DTEK’s green energy capacity from 1GW to 1.5GW.
DTEK’s plans to expand Tyligulska, and its broader strategy to help Ukraine become an energy exporter, depend on DTEK securing an additional $450 million in funding, from foreign investors and state-backed international financial institutions.