d 5% from hydro.
Currently the country has four active nuclear power stations, located in Kuznetsovsk, Enerhodar, Yuzhnoukrainsk and Netishyn. In addition to these active plants, a fifth reactor complex had been planned for the Crimea, but construction was suspended indefinitely in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, a major nuclear incident which took place at the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station, 110 km (68 mi) north of Kiev.
All of Ukraine’s RBMK reactors (the type involved in the Chernobyl disaster), were located at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. All of the reactors there have been shut down leaving only VVER reactors operating in the country, which are much safer than RBMK units. Three of these new-type reactors were built since 1991 in the independent Ukraine (with the first one in 1995), whilst the other sixteen were inherited from the Soviet Union.
The share of renewables within the total energy mix is still very small, but is growing fast. Total installed capacity of renewable energy installations more than doubled in 2011 and now stands at 397 MW. Indeed, 2011 was a breakthrough year for renewable energy development in Ukraine, especially for solar energy. First, Okhotnykovo Solar Park, one of the world’s largest, was put into operation in July. Then, six months later, Europe’s largest solar park was completed in Perovo, (Crimea). Ukrainian State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Conservation forecasts that combined installed capacity of wind and solar power plants in Ukraine could increase by another 600 MW in 2012. According to Macquarie Research, by 2016 Ukraine will construct and commission new PV facilities with a total capacity of 1.8 GW, which is almost equivalent to the capacity of two nuclear reactors.
The Economic Bank for Reconstruction and Development estimates that Ukraine has great renewable energy potential: the technical potential for wind energy is estimated at 40 TWh/year, small hydro at 8.3 TWh/year,
