Last winter, millions of Ukrainians endured weeks without heating and hours without power every day.
Russian strikes have systematically targeted the country’s gas and coal plants since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.The lesson Ukraine has drawn is that wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries are harder to destroy, cheaper to build, and faster to replace than thermal power plants. But investors’ reluctance to take on risk in the country at war is making energy investment harder than ever.
Building turbines under fire
Driving up a dirt road in hilly western Ukraine, 10 giant wind turbines appear over the ridge.
The site belongs to Eco Optima, a Ukrainian-Czech joint venture. Development started at the end of 2021 but was interrupted by the invasion, and so all of the turbines were actually built during the war, in 2023 and 2024.
