Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Mykola Lazarenko Ivano-Frankivsk invests into alternative energy

President Victor Yushchenko, left, visits a brand new electricity generator on Feb. 9 in the western Ukrainian town of Ivano-Frankivsk. The plant produces some 3.4 megawatts of power by burning wood chips scrapped by woodshops in the region. Such technology is seen as one of many alternative energy options Ukraine could adopt to wean itself off increasingly costly natural gas imports from Russian. Other options include the burning of coal-bed methane pumped out of coal mines in eastern Ukraine, biogas-based technologies, co-generation, ethanol-based biofuel and wind mills. Development of the new generator in Ivano-Frankivsk was backed by Hr 1.5 million in budget funds, and Hr 3.3 million in funding from the state-owned heating company in the city, Ivano-Frankivskteplokomenergo. This month, Ukraine’s prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, said the country could in the next decade use alternative energy technologies to cut Russian gas imports by 10 billion cubic meters from current 40-50 billion cubic meter levels.