Since the beginning of June, banks have received 1,975 applications from businesses for loans for energy infrastructure rehabilitation projects totalling UAH 46.4 billion. Applications to the tune of UAH 5.8 billion have already been approved.

The National Bank of Ukraine has published the relevant data, Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Mykola Kolisnyk said on air of the Yedyni Novyny (United News) National Telethon.

He reminded that in order to increase the capacity of distributed generation and prepare for the winter, the Government had adopted a number of decisions to simplify connections to electricity and gas grids and the conditions for the construction of new generating capacity.

It also approved a number of financial instruments. These include an interest-free lending programme for household consumers, which allows them to borrow up to UAH 480,000 at a zero interest rate to purchase up to 30 kW of installed capacity of solar panels and an investor as an energy storage system, as well as the 5-7-9 programme for businesses and co-owners of apartment buildings (condominiums), and the GreenDIM programme.

"A number of partner banks participate in these programmes. According to the NBU, applications for more than UAH 46 billion have already been received. This demonstrates the active interest of citizens in installing backup power supply systems," Mykola Kolisnyk said.

In addition, to strengthen the resilience and flexibility of the energy system, the Government approved the Distributed Generation Development Strategy. In addition, an important factor for the faster development of distributed generation facilities is the decision by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to introduce zero duties and value added tax for energy equipment, which makes the equipment cheaper and therefore more affordable for citizens.