Ukraine found an unlikely tool to resist Russia: Solar panels

Source: Michael Birnbaum | · THE WASHINGTON POST · | May 20, 2023

Source: Solar panels cover the top of a small hospital in the Kyiv suburb of Horenka. Ukraine is using small-scale renewable energy, especially solar panels, as a way to improve energy security in the face of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)

Russian airstrikes on Ukraine’s power grid plunged many parts of the country into darkness in the fall, but one water company was able to keep its pumps going. Its field of solar panels, installed as an environmentally friendly measure before the war, turned into a tool to resist the Kremlin’s attacks.

Now a growing number of Ukrainian hospitals, schools, police stations and other critical buildings are racing to install solar panels ahead of what many expect will be another hard winter.

A less carbon-intense, decentralized energy system is emerging as a key element of Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts. Seven months of Russian attacks on the energy grid have left it severely damaged. Ukrainian doctors, teachers and others have discovered that efforts to boost sustainability can also improve security by making it harder to knock power offline. Ukrainian policymakers, meanwhile, are setting ambitious clean energy goals, trying to shake off their prewar reputation as lagging on climate issues.