Rybnikova E. Economic and legal stimulation of renewable energy sources usage in Ukraine

In the national economic science the thesis is the first special comprehensive study of the economic and legal stimulation of renewable energy source usage (hereinafter – RES) in Ukraine. The modern trends analysis within global energy sector has allowed us to conclude that RES have become exceptionally important element in the conception of sustainable development, and besides, they became essential prerequisite to the countries’ energy security, which the author has suggested to consider in both broad and narrow sense. The entire thesis is built on the fact that relations regarding the use of RES in their quantitative and qualitative dimensions are mainly economic, and accordingly, they should be regulated by the norms of the economic code of Ukraine and economic legislation as a whole. On the basis of analysis of current national legislation in the renewable energy sector the conclusion is made that it necessary to generalize the terms “nontraditional and renewable energy sources” and “alternative energy sources” under single term “RES”, also the author’s definition to it is suggested. Scientifically grounded proposals for the ways of expanding the Ukraine’s cooperation with international both government-related and non-governmental organiz ations in the renewable energy sector are developed. It is worth noting, that the renewable energy sector is one of those spheres of material production, that isn’t able to develop by itself within the context of market mechanism and requires state intervention. Thus, the objective factors, which determine the necessity of the state regulation within the renewable energy sector is inability of the market mechanisms to ensure the competitiveness of the RES themselves along with the traditional energy sources. This thesis unveils the essence of the economic and legal stimulation of the RES usage and gives its definition along with its implementation stages systemizing into certain road-map. The list of positive tools of stimulation of the RES usage has been expanded with the new edition of the Law of Ukraine “On alternative energy sources”, giving the possibility to access to financial, economical, organizational, legal, informational and psychological ways of promotion. The expediency of implementation of Renewable energy quota and Green certificate schemes in Ukraine as the effective instrument of the renewable energy accounting and demand stabilization on it among the population of the country is substantiated. Besides, certain directions of the licensing system improvement in the sphere of the renewable energy, namely by giving the owners of the renewable plants the priority right to purchase the land to allocate their generative capacities from the one hand, and from the other, giving free access to the generating power plants owners to integrate their system to electrical installations or electric networks are proposed. Author’s classification of contracts in the renewable energy sector according to the form of the parties’ expression and to the subject is developed. It is concluded that the development of the business-incubators network, which activity will be directed on both existing and potential energy manufacturers based on RES is the promising method of stimulation of the RES usage in Ukraine.