PHENIX

The PHENIX project is fully aligned with Ukraine’s political commitment to begin preparing today for the country’s reconstruction by focusing on modern, more sustainable, and resolutely forward-looking solutions. The Ukrainian Recovery Plan highlights one of its five guiding principles:

“Build back better,” by promoting green technologies and international best practices to sustainably improve living conditions.

Ukraine hopes to use its reconstruction efforts to transform its energy system and make communities more resilient.

A strategic shift is underway toward decentralized, hybrid, sustainable, and low-carbon solutions. These systems, installed directly on buildings, provide a more stable power supply right now—despite grid outages and disruptions—and, in the long term, reduce reliance on the centralized, carbon-intensive power grid, leading to greener energy consumption and lower bills.

Installing solar panels on hospitals, schools, and agricultural facilities contributes to several key objectives of the Ukrainian government:
– securing the energy supply amid the vulnerability of the national grid;
– strengthening the energy independence of local institutions;
– developing clean energy produced as close as possible to where it is needed, in line with Ukraine’s climate commitments and its future integration into the European Union.

As Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK—one of the country’s leading private energy suppliers—points out:

“The development of green energy is not only a response to the climate crisis, but also to our need to strengthen energy security. […] Our economic recovery will be based on green energy.”

Since August 2023, the “Hybrid Solutions” emergency project, funded by the Crisis and Support Center (CDCS) of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, has enabled Electricians Without Borders to deploy hybrid solar systems for nearly 100 essential facilities (hospitals, schools, water pumping stations).

The installed systems typically combine solar panels, sometimes with storage batteries, a grid connection, and, if necessary, a backup generator.
The goal is to reduce dependence on the national grid and on diesel generators, which are costly, polluting, and difficult to fuel during times of conflict.
The system automatically manages multiple power sources based on sunlight levels, demand, and any grid outages.

The project also explores agrivoltaics, which involves installing solar panels above crops to generate electricity while providing shade to protect the plants and reducing water requirements.
This type of system helps preserve arable land, improve water management, strengthen local food and energy security, and develop new income-generating activities (preservation, processing, cooking, etc.).

Completion dates: 2025 – 2028

The development of decentralized renewable energies meets both the country’s immediate resilience needs and its energy transition ambitions.

The project is run with CAMZ as the main partner, along with three local civil society organizations (CSOs ): ATDL for the first locality; two other CSOs from the localities selected at the end of the first year.

By the end of the project, PHENIX will have equipped 10 essential buildings: 3 health/water structures, 3 schools, 4 agricultural sites, in at least three hromadas, with a territorial logic (several solarized structures in the same perimeter).

The project benefits from major support from Agence Française de Développement (AFD) via the I-OSC scheme.

Ukrainian CSOs thus benefit from a strengthening of their technical skills and a better understanding of energy installations, thanks to the deployment of solutions in real-life conditions (carrying out energy diagnostics, sizing photovoltaic systems, monitoring installations, etc.).

Beneficiaries and local users will also be made aware of the benefits of renewable energies, and the monitoring and maintenance of installations.

Electriciens sans frontières is committed to gender equality in all its projects.

In the context of PHENIX, the NGO mobilizes dedicated external expertise to analyze the context from a gender perspective, anticipate the project’s gender-specific impacts and enable it to adjust its actions so as not to reinforce gender inequalities in its areas of intervention.

Number of direct beneficiaries: 61,700 people

The PHENIX project will directly benefit:

– around 60,000 patients and staff at the 3 health facilities;
– around 650 pupils and teachers at the 3 solarized schools;
– around 20 agricultural workers at the 4 sites;
– 20 members of local CSOs, enhancing their skills;
– at least 6 technical companies involved in the installations;
– around 1,000 people sensitized to renewable energies over 3 years.

CAMZ: “Comité d’Aide Médicale de Zakarpattya” is a Ukrainian NGO founded in 2000, from an initiative launched in 1996 by the Comité d’Aide Médicale. Since 2005, it has been involved in long-term development actions, including the reform of public institutions for children and adults with disabilities, the strengthening of civil society, and large-scale assistance programs for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Since 2022, it has been providing emergency aid throughout the country, supplying essential goods, medical equipment, ambulances, generators and water tanks.

ATDL: Association Transcarpatienne de Développement Local (Transcarpathian Association for Local Development) is a Ukrainian NGO that has been working for 25 years on an integral rural development project for a village in the Transcarpathian mountains, the village of Nyzhne Selyshche. It is part of the international Longo Mai movement, which comprises 11 self-managed cooperatives in Europe, focusing on agriculture and handicrafts. Since the beginning of the war, ATDL has also been providing humanitarian aid to displaced persons.

EDF, Enedis, RTE, Legrand, Union Française de l’Electricité, Novéa Energies, CONSUEL, Metalor, Capeb