Like many other communities in the Kharkiv region, Slobozhanske is under constant shelling, which means the risk of power outages is ever-present. These blackouts often lead to a halt in water supply — leaving residents without access to clean water.

To help address this issue, RePower Ukraine Foundation, in partnership with the humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps, has launched the construction of a solar power station with an energy storage system. It will support the water supply infrastructure in the village of Donets. This local utility provides drinking water to homes, a kindergarten, a school and local businesses, including farms. Ensuring uninterrupted access to clean water is critical for the wellbeing and resilience of the community.

Beyond keeping the water system running, this project brings an additional benefit — increasing the resilience of the utility, which is part of the community’s critical infrastructure. Each year, the Donets utility relies on financial support from the local budget. The solar power plant will significantly reduce its energy costs and free up resources that can be used to modernise equipment and improve the quality of services for local residents.

“One of the key priorities for the town council — especially during wartime — is ensuring reliable and effective utility services for our people. In Donets, outdated water infrastructure makes it harder to guarantee access to clean water. This project will improve the utility’s capacity to operate during outages, while creating a financial cushion to upgrade the system and enhance services. I’m grateful to RePower Ukraine Foundation for their expertise and steadfast support on our path to greater energy independence and smarter use of local resources,”
— Dmytro Dikhtiar, Mayor of Slobozhanske

Solar energy is helping Ukrainian communities become more resilient. It enables local generation at the point of use — a principle known as distributed energy. Especially in times of war, this decentralised approach allows communities to rely less on the central grid and more on energy they produce themselves.

While such solutions are relatively easy to implement — solar panels are affordable and import duties have been lifted — the shift to distributed energy requires systemic support. RePower Ukraine Foundation is working hand-in-hand with the people of Slobozhanske to make this transition a reality.

This project is implemented by RePower Ukraine in partnership with Mercy Corps.

If you have any questions, information requests, feedback, complaints, or suggestions, please contact us via the channels listed below. All feedback is confidential:

If you witness, experience, or suspect any case of sexual exploitation, abuse, harassment, or misconduct involving adults or children by anyone associated with Mercy Corps or the RePower Ukraine Foundation, please report it to the Integrity Hotline at:
integrityhotline@mercycorps.org or 0800 501 134