Emergy has announced it is to postpone construction of the Sophia Wind Farm Project in Ukraine due to issues with off-take payments, foreign investment and regulations.
The Zophia wind farm located in the Zaporizhia region is expected be one of the largest onshore wind farms in Europe when constructed.
The wind farm is divided in three stages, Zophia 1 of 40MW, Zophia 2 of 300MW and Zophia 3 of 450MW.
Originally, Emergy planned to build Zophia 1 and 2 with a total capacity of 340MW under the green tariff.
This plan was changed and the company decided to postpone construction.
Emergy said this was due to continuous issues with payments from the Guaranteed Buyer, the off-taker of renewable energy.
The developer also had difficulty attracting large-scale direct foreign investment into the Ukrainian renewable energy market (partly due to geopolitical situation with Russia).
The final factor behind the decision to postpone was the short time remaining for construction and commissioning of the wind farms.
Under the current regulations in Ukraine every renewable project needs to be constructed by end-2022.
Emergy has started construction of certain infrastructure for the project and is exploring alternative offtake before resuming construction.
In the absence of a clear vision from the government of an auction programme, we are exploring opportunities to sign bilateral power purchase agreements with large consumers, the developer said.
It added that until it knows for certain how to sell the electricity produced, Emergy would do its best to maintain relations and uphold obligations with key stakeholders in and outside of Ukraine.
When constructed, the Zophia Wind Farm will contribute to save close to 2 million tonnes of CO2 and will attract more than €1bn of foreign direct investments to Ukraine.
Emergy said it remains committed to Ukraine despite the difficult times and will continue with development of the biggest wind farm in Europe and hope to contribute to Ukraine’s energy security.