DEG supports installation of a photovoltaic system in West Ukraine

With the people of Ukraine still struggling with the challenges of day-to-day life, economic prospects can make their living conditions more bearable. Against this background, DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, through its subsidiary DEG Impulse, is co-financing the installation of a photovoltaic system at the Ukrainian site of German SME A. Reiter GmbH. The system is designed to generate 600,000 kWh of green electricity each year to secure the site’s manufacturing operations, with a third of the solar energy produced to be fed into the Ukrainian power grid. A. Reiter will invest around EUR 494,000 of its own funds into the project, which will be matched by DEG using resources from the develoPPP programme run by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Securing production during electricity shortages

A. Reiter GmbH, headquartered in the administrative district of Augsburg, is a family-run SME that treats and produces wood fuels. Its subsidiary STAF Dovhe LCC has been operating in the village of Dovhe in West Ukraine since 2018, where, with 50 local employees, they are a major employer. It produces and exports firewood and wood briquettes from sustainably managed forests in West Ukraine.

The planned photovoltaic system is designed to ensure that losses in power no longer have to be compensated for by diesel generators or that production no longer has to be stopped altogether. The investment will create ten new jobs. Specialist Ukrainian firms will be entrusted with the construction, operation and maintenance of the new photovoltaic system.

Economic prospects for internally displaced individuals

“Private companies in Ukraine are doing their best to keep their operations up and running and showing a great capacity for adapting under relentlessly difficult circumstances. With our co-financing for A. Reiter, we are helping a German family-run company to secure its local energy supply and in doing so create new jobs for internally displaced people in West Ukraine,” says Marco Christ, Managing Director of DEG Impulse.

Thea Reiter-Kootz, Managing Director of A. Reiter GmbH, adds: “We and our Ukrainian colleagues are looking forward to collaborating with DEG and turning our ambition for a more reliable energy supply and a stronger region into a reality. On top of this, using solar power to produce sustainable wood fuels is a crucial component of our company’s forward-looking approach.”

Connecting public educational establishments with Ukrainian partners to make know-how on photovoltaic and battery storage available to the solar energy sector in Ukraine is also part of the plan.

DEG has been active in Ukraine since 1996 and has been advising and supporting its customers since the beginning of the war. At the Ukraine Recovery Conference held in Berlin in mid-June, it announced its commitment to finance another investment in the field of renewable energies: It provides EUR 5 million in ImpactConnect financing to the GOLDBECK SOLAR Group for developing solar parks in Ukraine.