RENEWABLE ENERGY IN UKRAINE: CURRENT STATUS, PROBLEMS AND DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS

The article examines the essence of renewable energy, characterizes the factors determining its development in Ukraine. These include: the need to reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris climate agreement, the reduction of coal reserves and the inefficiency of the functioning of the domestic coal complex, the insufficiency of own natural gas production, the critical dependence of electricity production at Ukrainian nuclear power plants on a single supplier of nuclear fuel, wear and tear of reactors at Ukrainian nuclear power plants, significant destruction of TPP infrastructure as a result of military actions of the russian federation on the territory of Ukraine. Program documents related to the development of renewable energy in Ukraine are characterized. The structure of electricity production in Ukraine by types of power plants was analyzed, the distribution of total capacity by renewable energy entities was studied. It was concluded that the greatest power in 2021 is recorded for solar power plants, most of which are concentrated in the southern and southeastern regions of Ukraine. The second place in terms of share in the given structure is occupied by wind power stations, the main number of which are located in Mykolaiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The existing problems of the development of the renewable energy sector were identified, in particular: the destruction and destruction of energy infrastructure facilities as a result of the military actions of the russian federation; insufficient flexibility of the United Energy System of Ukraine with the growth of electricity production using RES; lack of powerful energy storage systems in Ukraine; the slowness of the implementation of the auction mechanism for stimulating renewable electricity. Prospective directions for the development of renewable energy in Ukraine are outlined, including: restoration of damaged and construction of new wind power plants, increase in the number of household solar power plants, more active use of biomass and biogas for electricity production, construction of electrical energy storage systems, introduction of a mechanism for providing guarantees of the origin of electrical energy from alternative energy sources.