The government has given instructions to equip administrative buildings, hospitals and schools with solar panels

Solar panels. Photo: Public

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a program that provides for the installation of solar panels and energy storage systems on the roofs of schools, hospitals and administrative buildings.

As the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal reported, this initiative aims to ensure the autonomy of these institutions in terms of energy.

«This is a task for both ministries and all local leaders. We must reach the level where the maximum number of hospitals, administrative buildings and schools are autonomous,» said Denys Shmyhal.

According to the program, ministries, central executive bodies and regional administrations are tasked to ensure the installation of solar energy systems and batteries to meet the energy needs of public and administrative buildings, hospitals and schools by the end of 2025. Financing of the project will be carried out at the expense of international technical assistance, non-governmental funds, as well as other sources permitted by law.

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We will remind you that uninterruptible power supply units will be connected to the traffic lights at the busy intersections of Mykolaiv so that they work even during power outages.

Shelling of the energy sector in the spring of 2024

Russia carried out the first massive shelling of energy infrastructure facilities this year on March 22. The Russian army attacked Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava Oblast, Vinnytsia Oblast, Lviv Oblast, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Mykolaiv Oblast, Odesa, and other regions of Ukraine.

The biggest was the attack on the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) in Zaporizhzhia. This is one of the largest and most powerful hydraulic structures in Ukraine. A rocket attack on the Dnipro HPP resulted in damage to two stations and a dam that are part of its structure.

Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Center, says that by winter, Ukraine needs to restore at least 25-30% of the damaged heat generation: «We need to fully involve imports. Also, before winter, we need to restore as much as possible from coal generation, from hydro generation, and to build facilities in gas generation as much as possible.»

At the same time, according to the Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko, it is not appropriate to make any predictions about the difficulty of the next winter for the energy industry of Ukraine. In his opinion, now no one will be able to say with which generation Ukraine will end up in the winter: «Actually, everything looks comforting, because the system, despite the Russian strikes, is intact.»

The BBC predicts that Ukrainians can spend up to 20 hours a day without electricity or heating in winter.