One of Ukraine's largest solar power plants, Green Energy Tokmak, located near occupied Tokmak in the Zaporizhia region, has indeed suffered significant damage as a result of enemy rocket fire, but is now in place.
This was announced by its co-owner and special representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy Alexander Repkin in a comment Forbes Ukraine.
"I don't know who invented this fake. We carried out repairs ourselves and removed damaged equipment to avoid a fire," he said.
However, Repkin acknowledged that the solar station was indeed damaged after the russians entered Tokmak on February 27.
According to the co-owner, the SES was partially destroyed by shelling from Grads rockets and other weapons. "Then a tank came to the station and suppressed the modules," he added.
In addition, the occupiers looted the company's office and still periodically enter the station. "They took out everything they could and what they couldn't, they broke," Repkin said.
He said that at night, during curfew, the occupiers periodically enter the station. The Russians also stole several inverters and cut the cable.
Due to the destruction, the station lost almost 20% of its capacity. Currently, it operates at a capacity of about 40 MW, said Repkin. The Special Representative estimated the damage from the destruction at € 8 million.
It is noted that the station has 48 employees, but the work is complicated. Near the station, near the airfield, the Russians have set up a restricted area and are firing without warning at anyone approaching, Repkin said. This area is part of the station, where employees can not go.
We will add that in the Zaporizhia OVA at first denied information on theft of SES, but then the head of the Zaporizhia RSA Oleg Buryak nevertheless confirmed that the occupiers are trying to "quietly" take out the property of the solar power plant and added that full information will be provided later.
Oleksandr Donchenko, an analyst with the Ukrainian Renewable Energy Association, noted that dismantling such a station is not easy. "It takes weeks, not days," he said.
No less difficult task is to transport the panels. "We need special equipment for transportation. The panels can't just be stacked in trucks," Donchenko added.
Before EcoPolitics wrote that in the comment to the edition "Terminal" they denied the information about possible next looting of Russians.
