Clear Energy fails to return three 22 MW biomass TPPs to grid due to problems with raw materials – board head
The Clear Energy group of companies, engaged in the construction and operation of bio-thermal power plants, wind farms, solar power plants, landfill degassing stations, did not manage to put into operation their biomass thermal power plants, which were stopped in the middle of winter due to the lack of profitability of electricity production, chairman of the group's supervisory board Petro Bahriy said.
"Unfortunately, no, it was not possible. And not only our stations. A total of 54 MW of biomass power is idle due to the fact that there is a problem in providing them with raw materials. The price set by the State Forest Resources Agency is not acceptable in the situation with the current pricing on the market. Nobody deals with logging residues in forestry at all, this is a resource for abuse in the forest sector, this market is not developing," he said at a press conference on the development of distributed generation at Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Wednesday.
At the same time, Bahriy noted that 54 MW of power "is not superfluous" for the energy system now and could help it in the winter.
"I hope that we will still find some solutions through joint efforts," Bahriy noted.
As reported, Clear Energy, as Bahriy stated in April 2024, was forced to stop its three biomass thermal power plants with a total installed capacity of 22 MW from the beginning of the year, because due to rising prices for fuel chips regulated by the State Forest Resources Agency, there was no profitability of the work even with a feed-in tariff of 12.39 eurocents per kWh for the company.
Then the head of the supervisory board admitted that the company would launch the plants in the summer, counting on lower fuel prices in the face of declining demand for it.
Bahriy also cited the example of Lithuania, where auctions for the sale of raw materials first satisfy the needs of energy companies, and then everyone else.
Another problematic issue in the work of bioenergy projects, which reinforces the problem described above, he named the debt of the Guaranteed Buyer State Enterprise for the electricity it had already purchased, which at that time amounted to almost UAH 200 million for the company.
Bahriy noted that the group has two more biomass stations of 12 MW and 6 MW at the launch stage, but it does not put them into operation "because it will generate losses."
