Ukraine takes a step forward in decentralised green energy development under the RES Programme

GIZ offi­cial­ly launched the Renew­able Ener­gy Solu­tions (RES) Pro­gramme in Ukraine, fund­ed by the Ger­man Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment and the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI). RES Pro­gramme is set-up as a grant agree­ment between the Gov­ern­ment of Ukraine and the Euro­pean Invest­ment Bank (EIB), joint­ly imple­ment­ed with UNDP.

Pub­lic build­ings, such as schools and hos­pi­tals, depend on a cen­tral ener­gy sup­ply that has become increas­ing­ly vul­ner­a­ble due to the impacts of war. In this con­text, ener­gy reli­a­bil­i­ty is not just a munic­i­pal chal­lenge, but a nation­al pri­or­i­ty.

Under GIZ’s man­date, the RES Pro­gramme will sup­port select­ed munic­i­pal­i­ties through:

— The devel­op­ment of invest­ment-ready project design doc­u­men­ta­tion, lay­ing the ground­work for fur­ther imple­men­ta­tion;

— Empow­er­ing local gov­ern­ments and pub­lic insti­tu­tions with train­ing and sup­port to imple­ment and man­age renew­able ener­gy solu­tions;

— Sup­port in the imple­men­ta­tion of a pilot project that enables pub­lic build­ings to oper­ate as both ener­gy con­sumers and ener­gy providers.

RES aims to equip Ukrain­ian munic­i­pal­i­ties with the tools, knowl­edge, and solu­tions need­ed to secure essen­tial ser­vices dur­ing ener­gy dis­rup­tions. Beyond enhanc­ing local resilience, these decen­tralised ener­gy sys­tems will con­tribute direct­ly to Ukraine’s ambi­tious cli­mate goals and its EU inte­gra­tion.