PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS FOR BIOENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The current state of the development of bioenergy in Ukraine is presented. Prospects for the production of heat from biomass by sectors of consumption until 2050 are estimated. The most important barriers to the development of the sector are analyzed, ways for their complete or partial overcoming are suggested. The current state of the development of bioenergy in Ukraine is presented. It is shown that according to Ukraine’s energy balance for 2010-2016, the average annual growth of bioenergy is 45 % by the «production of biofuel and wastes» and 35 % by the «total primary energy supply from biofuels and wastes». Despite quite good dynamics of the development, to reach key figures of the National Renewable Energy Action Plan until 2020 it is necessary to speed up bioenergy growth. Prospects for the production of heat from biomass by sectors of consumption until 2050 are estimated. The obtained results show that the share of renewables in the total heat production may be over 57 % in 2050. At that the consumption of renewable energy sources will be about 13.8 Mtoe/yr (of which biomass accounts for over 90 %), and the respective replacement of natural gas will come to about 17 billion m3/yr. The most important barriers to the development of bioenergy sector are analyzed, and ways for their complete or partial overcoming are suggested. Ukraine has quite good legal basis for the development of renewable energy. In particular, it includes the feed-in tariff for power produced from alternative energy sources and stimulating tariff for heat produced from alternative energy sources for households and public buildings. For the wider involvement of biomass in the fuel and energy balance of Ukraine it is necessary to provide legal basis and implementation of a number of important measures.Among others, they include creating preconditions for increasing harvesting of wood in Ukraine’s forests, introduction of the electronic biofuel trade system, ensuring fair access of independentproducersofbiomassheattoheatnetworksandother.