This Friday, August 22, in the Slobozhanske community of Kharkiv region, the official opening took place of a solar power plant with an energy storage system for the local utility providing water supply and wastewater services. Ensuring the stable operation of this enterprise is critically important: the water supply not only to residential houses but also to the village kindergarten, school, and local businesses depends on it.
Until now, the municipal enterprise “Donets” required annual subsidies from the community budget, since almost all residents’ payments went toward electricity bills. Now, the 32 kW solar power plant will help save these funds, which can instead be directed to equipment modernization and service quality improvements.
The solar power plant for “Donets” is not only about saving money, but also about taking a step toward the sustainable recovery of the energy system in the Kharkiv region. Producing electricity as close as possible to the consumer is an example of distributed generation. In other words, enterprises, schools, and households can rely not on a large power station, but on a local source of energy. Under such conditions, even damage to energy infrastructure due to shelling cannot deprive a large number of people of electricity.
“For RePower Ukraine, the solar power plant for ‘Donets’ is not just about energy. It is about reliability, decent living conditions, and confidence in the community’s future,” — said Svitlana Vovchenko, Director of the RePower Ukraine Charitable Foundation.
“Donets is the only village in the community, apart from Slobozhanske itself, that has centralized water supply. This is both our strength and our vulnerability. If the municipal enterprise stops operating, all residents will be left without water. And if power outages last too long, people will be forced to drill private wells, destroying the village infrastructure and worsening the environmental situation in the region.
Through distributed generation, we aim to address the vulnerability of water supply during outages. We also believe that this solar power plant will launch a new direction: it will bring stability, reduce costs, and allow our village to confidently move toward energy independence and sustainable development,” emphasized Tetiana Kolobova, Chief Specialist of the Department of Economic Development, Municipal and Investment Activities of Slobozhanska City Council.
The opening of this solar power plant is a vivid example of how distributed generation can make communities stronger and more resilient.
This project is implemented by RePower Ukraine in partnership with Mercy Corps.
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