Стартові умови для розвитку геотермальної енергетики в Україні

• Date: 2019
• Main Author: Shurchkova Yu.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: Ukrainian
• Published: General Energy Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine 2019
• Subjects: стартові умови; геотермальна енергетика; інформація; ресурси; законодавство; фінанси.
• Online Access: https://systemre.org/index.php/journal/article/view/715
• Journal Title: System Research in Energy

The article presents an analysis of state-of-the-art of geothermal energy in Ukraine. The main factors determining the development of this industry are considered: information on resources, organizational and legal basis, government support, and financing.The ecological situation on the planet is rapidly deteriorating, and this is a cause of serious anxiety throughout the world. Therefore, the rate of development of renewable energy is increasing every year. As far back as in 2015, the governments of 145 countries invested heavily in the use of renewable energy sources. And one cannot but agree with the opinion of financial experts from «The Financial Times», which Rentechno cites (https://rentechno.ua/blog/breaking-point.html) that today it is a question of «Big Green Bang» (big green explosion) as about a fait accompli. Illustrating and confirming this, an IEA analysis shows that we are literally at a turning point. Already in 2020, the global energy system on fossil hydrocarbon fuels begins to decline. The era of domination of renewable energy begins. According to IRENA, by the end of 2018, 33% of all global power produces electricity from renewable energy sources: hydropower – 1200 GW, wind power – 564 GW, solar power – 480 GW, bioenergy – 121 GW, geothermal power – 13 GW, and wave energy – 500 MW. Renewable energy sources overtake coal-fired power plants in terms of electricity production. For the first time in history, US generated more electricity from renewable energy sources than coal-fired power plants.As far as possible, alternative energy is also developing in Ukraine. According to the State Energy Efficiency, the generation power of renewable energy sources in 2018 reached 2 GW and produced 2.8 billion kW-h of electricity, or about 2% of the total production. In 2018, more than 3139 renewable energy facilities with a total power of about 500 MW were commissioned. But in the list of introduced objects, there is no one facility that uses geothermal energy, which is most environmentally friendly, most stable, and requires the lowest operating costs.Summing up the analysis of state of-the-art of geothermal energy in Ukraine, we can say that the starting conditions for its development are optimistic since the country has significant reserves of geothermal energy, located on the most part of its territory. There are four artesian basins where industrial extraction of heated thermal waters is possible; a large quantity of heat is accumulated on vast areas at accessible depths in impenetrable mountain ranges; there is a number of thermo-anomaly areas, where overheated waters are situated in penetrating reservoirs, which can be used for constructing geothermal power plants. There is a fairly voluminous legislation governing the development of geothermal projects, there are numerous benefits for the production of geothermal energy. The government has repeatedly declared a support for the development of geothermal energy. However, according to experts of the National Energy Agency of Iceland, who within the framework of the Memorandum of cooperation in the field of geothermal energy performed an analysis of the potential of geothermal energy in Ukraine, the development of geothermal energy requires not only legislative regulation, but also the availability of detailed information on geothermal fields, sufficient funding, attraction of modern technology and international best practices.The factors hampering the development of geothermal energy in Ukraine are not fundamental in nature, and one can hope that, with economic growth in the country, they will be overcome, and geothermal energy will occupy a worthy place in the list of widely introduced renewable energy sources.