‘Ukraine parliament’s discrimination against wind power is helping Russia,’ says industry body
New tax breaks will help wind turbine repair and maintenance but do nothing to boost buildout of new wind farms, association claims
“Russian energy terrorism” is the winner after Ukraine's parliament failed to axe duties on imports of certain wind power equipment in two recently passed bills, claims the country’s wind power association.
Ukraine’s parliament this week voted to scrap taxes and duties on energy equipment as the country scrambles to replace power generation facilities that have been destroyed by Russian missiles.
Energy minister German Galuschenko said the move will help boost equipment purchases, develop distributed generation and improve energy efficiency and Ukraine’s energy independence of Ukraine as a whole.
However, the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association (UWEA) said that the bills failed to lift taxes and duties on importing wind turbines. “As a result, the main equipment needed to construct wind farms will not be tax-exempt, contradicting the government's declared intentions.”
UWEA said it has appealed to the government to incorporate this “crucial customs code” into the laws. “Unfortunately, the UWEA's request was ignored.”
“Without the necessary tax incentives, the development of wind energy in Ukraine will slow significantly,” it said.
There is currently potential for up to 3GW of wind projects to be built over the next two years, according to the body, but it claimed in a post on Linkedin that Ukraine’s parliament has “repeatedly discriminate[d]” against the wind power sector.”
“This neglect suggests a deliberate choice to increase the energy system’s deficit, deter international investments, damage Ukraine’s image, and enable ongoing Russian energy terrorism.”
“Such actions inadvertently support Russia, the only country that officially views wind energy and renewable energy development as a threat to its national security.”
“We can import, for example, a nacelle or gearbox separately and not pay tax on it,” she said, but there is no exemption for importing an entire wind turbine.
Ukrainian wind developers have always imported “complete wind turbines” rather than separate components when building wind farms, she said. The laws therefore cut the tax burden for repair and maintenance purposes “but do not provide an incentive for the construction of new wind power plants”.
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