In the modern structure of the national economy of Ukraine, energy occupies one of the leading places. This is the oldest branch of the Ukrainian economy. It is based on the burning of fossil coal, gas, fuel oil, as well as the use of atomic and natural energy of large rivers. What is the difference between the current state of energy in Ukraine? What are the main prospects for its development? The answers are in our article.
Energy of Ukraine: its structure and geography
The main consumers of fuel resources and electricity in the country are utilities and heavy industry (in particular, enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy). Modern energy in Ukraine is represented by thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric power plants (see diagram below). Although the share of wind and solar stations in the overall structure of electricity production has been increasing in recent years, it still remains miserable.
Ukraine has rather large reserves of coal (Donbass and Volyn). On its territory there are also insignificant deposits of natural gas. A number of large thermal power plants of the country work on these resources. Among them - Krivorozhskaya, Uglegorskaya, Kurakhovskaya TPP. In general, Ukraine provides only 58% of its fuel resources. The rest has to be imported from other countries.
The Dnieper River in the era of Soviet industrialization, in fact, was turned into a cascade of reservoirs with hydroelectric power stations. The largest of them is in the city of Zaporozhye. This is the famous Dneproges, which generates over 2000 million kWh of electricity per year.
The energy sector of Ukraine is a rather complex technical system. In its structure there are a number of objects: power plants (thermal, nuclear and others), power lines, cooling ponds, slag ash dumps, radioactive waste storage facilities, etc. Most of the power plants are concentrated in two regions of the country: these are Donbass and Dnieper. In more detail, the geography of Ukrainian energy is shown on the following map:
Thermal power
About half of all electricity in Ukraine provides thermal power. It works both on its own and imported raw materials. The largest thermal power plants are located in the south-eastern part of the country: Uglegorsk, Zaporizhzhya, Zmievskaya, Krivorozhskaya, Kurakhovskaya and others. As of today, the thermal power industry of Ukraine urgently needs a comprehensive modernization of equipment and the introduction of new resource-saving technologies.
Nuclear power
Nuclear power plants account for about 40% of the generated electricity in Ukraine. Moreover, there are only four of them in the country: Rivne, Khmelnitsky, Zaporizhzhya and South Ukraine. It is important to note that the share of nuclear energy in the overall structure of the industry is increasing every year. At four Ukrainian nuclear power plants today, a total of one and a half dozen power units operate. Their total capacity is about 13, 000 MW of energy. All nuclear power plants in Ukraine were commissioned in the 70-80s of the last century.
