The cost of plant waste to create granular biofuels increases by 20-25% annually, says Yevhen Oleynyk, representing the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine.

A few years ago, 1 m³ of chips for biofuel production could be bought for 300-350 UAH, now its price is 700-705 UAH. This amount includes shipping costs and VAT.

This situation leads to the fact that buying raw materials becomes economically unprofitable. If you work with your own raw materials, then the project for the production of electricity from it will pay off for a period of 4-7 years. The specific terms depend on the type of biomass when selling electricity at the “green tariff”. Moreover, such projects are more profitable than thermal power plants and their payback period is shorter.

The construction of a biofuel thermal power station will cost 3-4 thousand euros with imported equipment for working with wood pellets. If you use straw pellets, the cost will increase to 4-5 thousand euros. When using Ukrainian-made equipment, cash costs will decrease to 2–2.5 thousand euros / kW. But there is a risk that the equipment purchased will be of poor quality and not so reliable, summarizes Evgeny Oleinik.