A new regional office for clearing and decarbonisation has opened in central Odessa, offering practical support to businesses and residents seeking to develop energy-efficiency, decentralised generation and renewable energy projects.
The office, located at 5 Hretska Street, will advise on projects ranging from improving energy efficiency to installing solar generation. The pilot initiative expands Ukraine’s existing network of decarbonisation offices.
The project was initiated by Ukraine’s State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving with support from the Italian government, through the Italian Embassy and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), as well as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Its opening follows agreements reached during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome and is intended to help translate broader reconstruction and decarbonisation goals into projects that can be implemented locally.
For Odessa, decentralised energy has also become an issue of resilience. Acting Mayor Ihor Koval said the experience of difficult winters and attacks on energy infrastructure had demonstrated the importance of developing generation that is less dependent on a small number of centralised facilities.
One of the areas with significant potential is rooftop solar. At the opening, UNEP experts presented calculations suggesting that using just 5% of Odessa’s total roof area for solar panels could generate enough electricity to cover around a quarter of the city’s demand.
Residents and businesses will be able to use an online tool available through the new office to assess individual buildings. After selecting a property on a map, the system estimates how many solar panels could be installed on its roof, their potential electricity output and the expected payback period for the investment.
A much larger solar project is also being considered. UNEP and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), together with the city authorities, are working on the possibility of developing a 30 MW solar power plant in Odessa.
The new office is expected to serve as a link between residents, businesses, local authorities and international partners, helping turn energy-efficiency and renewable-energy proposals into practical projects at a time when decentralised generation is becoming increasingly important for the city’s energy security.
