The Beryslav municipality will create an enterprise for the production of fuel briquettes from straw to supply heating to a kindergarten. They will also implement an energy management system and scale up the experience of using biofuel to other municipal institutions and households in the region.

Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, the nine-month occupation and hostilities that took place on the territory of the urban municipality of Beryslav caused an acute energy crisis. High-voltage power lines were destroyed, gas distribution systems were damaged. Reconstruction of the infrastructure is costly and time-consuming. That is why the municipality decided to create an alternative to coal and gas and to use local biofuel — straw — for heating buildings.

The project “Increasing the Energy Independence of the Beryslav Urban Municipality by Establishing the Production of Fuel Briquettes” to set up briquette production and the creation of an energy management system is being implemented here with the support of U-LEAD with Europe. The local U-LEAD subsidy for this project was given to BERY I SLAV NGO.

The municipality is agrarian. Several agricultural enterprises that can supply significant amounts of straw continue to operate here after de-occupation and demining.

“As part of the project, we will purchase a fuel briquette production line with a capacity of 300 kg of ready-made briquettes per hour. A trial batch of products will be used to supply heating to one of the kindergartens in our municipality. And we will purchase the raw materials from local farmers,” said Nataliia Starodubets, Head of BERY I SLAV. According to her, the use of fuel briquettes for heating municipal facilities will save money from the local budget as well as become a blueprint for the use of an available and eco-friendly local energy resource.

The activists plan to promote alternative fuel sources and conduct informational and awareness-raising events for the people of the municipality. They will explain the production of briquettes and the effectiveness of their use to local self-government officials and speak to farmers about the importance of processing straw into fuel and the benefits of supplying this raw material. In addition, meetings will be held with residents regarding the expediency of using biofuel for heating their own homes.

“Establishing briquette production will help our municipality grow. Every year, after the harvest, a huge amount of straw remains in the fields of both the Beryslav municipality and the Berislav district. If it is processed into fuel briquettes, high-calorie coal can be saved. Moreover, our own renewable energy sources can become a powerful incentive for the development of the local economy,” said Nataliia Starodubets.

Straw briquettes are an inexpensive, eco-friendly, high-calorie fuel that meets Euro standards. Fuel briquettes made of straw can be burned in large and small boilers, stoves and furnaces. When burned, they release no unpleasant odours and hardly any smoke; they do not pop, spark or form soot or carbon monoxide.

“The municipalities of the Kherson oblast are in a very difficult situation: some are occupied, some are suffering from shelling while trying to restore the destroyed infrastructure. It is important that with the support of U-LEAD, the Beryslav municipality will be able to implement a project that will give it hope for energy independence, create additional jobs, improve the environment and help economic development. I am positive that this practice of the Beryslav municipality will become an example for others,” said Oksana Siliukova, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Kherson oblast.