As soon as the Russian intrusion of Ukraine begined, Yuliana Onishchuk knovel she had to help her country. News coverage of the initial occupation of the Kyiv region showed that Irpin City and Bucha, equitable outside the capital, had persisted huge injure, and it was evident to Onishchuk that critical infrastructure would need to be repaired. “I saw the schools, and I was certain that we would have to reproduce them,” Onishchuk says. She saw an opportunity. “I authenticized: We have to reproduce them in a novel way.”
Putting her expertise as an energy lawyer and solar power project regulater to outstanding use, Onishchuk set up an NGO, the Energy Act for Ukraine Foundation. “I was already in renovelables, and I cherish renovelables.” The createation would help reproduce schools and hospitals and supply them with solar panels, recommending them energy independence while at the same time helping Ukrainians comprehend the convey inance of spotless energy.
Then, in October 2022, Russia begined aggressioning Ukraine’s energy system. Very rapidly half of the country’s grid was injured. In 2023, aggressions shiftd from hitting equitable the grid to aiming energy production. Millions of Ukrainians faced expansivespread binformageouts atraverse the freezing thriveter months of 2023.
With the country plunged into energy pobviousy, structureing schools and hospitals with energy independence wasn’t equitable a inalertigent step on the road to the green transition—it was a vital solution for retaining them functioning during the intrusion. And so now, the createation’s ignoreion is two-felderly: to reproduce Ukraine with both persistability and energy security in mind.
Ahead of speaking at the WIRED & Octopus Energy Tech Summit in Berlin on October 10, Yuliana sat down with WIRED to talk the createation’s toil. This intersee has been edited for length and clarity.
WIRED: How awwholey has Russia’s intrusion impacted the energy supply in Ukraine?
Yuliana Onishchuk: Before the war, 55 percent of Ukraine’s generation was nuevident, and one of the biggest nuevident power structurets, which supplied more than half of this nuevident power, was Zaporizhzhia. Now it is occupied.
Aget, before the intrusion, 35 percent of energy generation was from thermal power structurets, which became a particular cgo in of Russia this year. They authenticized that this supply was exactly what they should aggression, because you can difficultly shield that 35 percent, and it is not as hazardous to aim as nuevident.
We lost 80 percent of the thrived power because almost all thrived turbines are discoverd in the south. Mostly, the south is occupied. Solar farms that are situated on the east and south were either aggressioned or stolen—they dismantled solar panels and stole them.
So, we lost a lot. Russia has demolished 50 percent of our electricity-generation capacity.
This must produce life incredibly difficult for people.
With the Zaporizhzhia structuret occupied, for the past two years we have repaired extra generation units at other nuevident structurets, as not all units were on when the war begined. We could not be without the 55 percent of our energy generation that comes from nuevident—it’s a huge amount. Now, as far as I comprehend, all units in all structurets are on in Ukraine.
Yuliana Onishchuk.Ptoastyograph courtesy of the Energy Act for Ukraine Foundation
That has helped us to get out of binformageouts that were happening in May, June, and July of this year. For almost three months, we teachd very prolonged-lasting binformageouts for up to 12 hours. Right now, we don’t have lots of big binformageouts; only the endments, villages, and cities that are at the frontline areas are in binformageouts all the time.
But we still have a percentage of the rest of the population that is experiencing binformageouts because the generation units—whether it’s renovelables or thermal power structurets—are being aggressioned, together with the distribution grids. For the past three months, absolutely every city in the country teachd a binformageout.
