The boom in solar panels in a Ukraine ravaged by Russian strikes

Every week, Russian missiles and drones strike the Ukrainian energy network, causing daily power outages that affect almost the entire population.

“Their level of cynicism is such that we must prepare for everything, even extremes. Why must babies suffer when they are born?” denounces the director of the maternity ward.

Energy infrastructure has suffered such damage that restoration within an acceptable time frame is impossible. And if energy is lacking in summer, everyone already has the coming winter in mind.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky therefore ordered the installation of solar panels in all hospitals and schools “as quickly as possible”.

“We are doing everything to defeat Russian attempts at energy and heating blackmail,” he insisted.

Mr. Guitchka had not waited for the face-to-face directive. His hospital just got this equipment, but had launched the procedure to obtain it at the end of 2022, when Russia carried out a first campaign of bombing energy installations, plunging millions of civilians into darkness and cold in the middle of winter.

Nervousness

As critical infrastructure, the maternity ward is not affected by organized power outages, but it needs generators and panels to deal with unforeseen circumstances and ensure that the incubators will continue to operate no matter what.

“Our task is simply to ensure that (the patients) will not lack anything,” explains the director, still on the roof of his establishment.

A few floors lower, Alina and Pavlo Kondratiuk look at Maksym, their son born an hour earlier in the middle of an air alert, to the sound of sirens that the mother barely noticed.

“I had my own alarms here,” she says of her delivery, a tired smile on her lips and the baby in her arms.

Pavlo tells him of his “nervousness” at the idea that the hospital could find itself plunged into darkness. But the medical team quickly reassured him by telling him that the establishment will remain powered.

“So we no longer worried,” he told AFP.

Solar panel installers are also seeing a boom in orders from individuals, with Ukrainians starting to equip themselves "the second the power cuts started", says the sales director of the Solar Tech company, Yuri Skoblikov.

“Our phones were ringing like crazy, and our offices were full of customers,” he says, ensuring that he already has a waiting list of orders to process until August.

Anastasia Kyslinska, director of the Spilno school in kyiv, installed solar panels at her establishment in November 2022, and that winter "they fulfilled their role in the most difficult times."

Not only were lights and computers working in the school, but there was sufficient power generation to help the neighborhood.

"It's doable"

“People came from neighboring buildings, parents of students too, to charge their flashlights, their batteries because we had these solar panels,” she says.

De facto, Russian bombings led Ukraine to turn to renewable energies, which before the war represented only 11% of energy production, the country relying primarily on coal, gas and nuclear power.

“At the local level, people use them, and maybe this pressure from below will have an impact on our leaders and on our entire energy system,” hopes Dmytro Bondarenko, researcher at the Institute of Renewable Energy from kyiv.

The first measures are arriving. President Volodymr Zelensky this week ordered tax incentives and loans for Ukrainians wanting to install energy-saving systems.

But for the expert, Mr. Bondarenko, Ukraine must succeed in transforming its existing infrastructure to considerably increase the share of renewables in its mix.

“We can change our lifestyle, technologies and activities to adapt to this unstable energy supply. There are difficulties, but it is doable,” he believes.