According to Mykola Pashkevych the agency head, the state agency for energy efficiency and energy saving has forecasted that the capacity of renewable energy sources will be increased by 2.3 times in 2012 to one gigawatt.
The agency said that the total installed capacity of alternative energy facilities in Ukraine is 411 megawatts or 0.8% of the power generating capacity of the country.
In 2011, 257 megawatts of alternative energy facilities were commissioned, and it is expected that in 2012 wind farms with a total capacity of 252 megawatts and solar power plants with the total capacity of 290 megawatts will be launched.
Mr Pashkevych also said that National Energy Company Ukrenergo has issued a permit to connect 3,027 megawatts of wind farms and 1,500 megawatts of solar power plants to the Ukrainian power grid.
The agency also said that this year it is planned to build some new facilities in the country regions. Czech company Ekotechnik Praha will finish the construction of 42 megawatts solar power plants in Kyiv region and will start installing 50 megawatts facilities in Dnipropetrovsk region. Rentechno will complete construction of a 1.8 megawatt solar power plant in Vinnytsia region and will start building 11 megawatt facilities in Kherson region.
Rengy Development will build six solar power plants with a combined capacity of 50 megawatts in Vinnytsia region. Israeli SunElectra wants to build 10 solar power plants with the capacity of 25-30 megawatts.