Norsk Energi lends its hand to Ukraine

Norsk Energi will support its Ukrainian partners by offering paid assignments to them, something they desperately need right now. In addition to that, employees of Norsk Energi have donated money to medicines and food for the elderly and sick in the port city of Odessa, in southern Ukraine.

Norsk Energi enjoyed projects in Ukraine since 2007. In all our projects, we work together with local partners.  On behalf of the Nordic Environmental Corporation (NEFCO), Norsk Energi is running a project in Ukraine for energy efficiency retrofit of about 90 schools and kindergartens in two Ukrainian cities (Chernovtsi and Ivano Frankivsk). This is done in close cooperation with a number of local energy efficiency specialists. When the conflict has started end of February 2022, it was natural to cease all project activities. Alike our project, all similar energy projects in Ukraine are stand-stilling now. Many highly educated professionals lost all the work at once. 

We are committed to help our local partners to survive the difficult situation.   

What we could do is, for example, is to involve the Ukrainian energy efficiency experts into our projects, where they could contribute with competence and expertise. It is not so easy of course, because business trips outside the country are hardly possible for Ukrainians now. On top of that, most of our projects in Norway require proficiency in the Norwegian language. Nevertheless, we have found few opportunities for the Ukrainians to get a paid job through Norsk Energi, and we will exploit this.

We have found it possible to engage our Ukrainian partner, the energy efficiency firm "ITCON" in a project in Romania, which is carried out and financed through the Norway grants programme. On behalf of Norsk Energi, ITCON will validate and specify energy efficiency measures in four schools and draw up a plan for technical control and takeover. In addition to that, another partner from Sumy University will provide us with assistance in conducting training in cleaner production and resource efficiency in industry in Azerbaijan, on behalf of the UN body, UNIDO. We have contacted both Norway grants and UNIDO and received their consent.

Both assignments are within our area of expertise and could have been carried out by Norsk Energi by its own, but we have made that decision in a deliberate attempt to support our long-term, reliable partners in Ukraine, who are in a trouble now.

In addition to this, the employees of Norsk Energi donated money to medicines and food for the elderly and sick in Odessa, which is the birthplace of one of our employees.  

Contact: Sergei Faschevsky

This clinic in Ivano-Frankivsk is listed as historical building. This places additional requirements on the design of energy efficiency measures.