As Ukraine works to rebuild its power system under the pressure of ongoing attacks, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has released a new report outlining how distributed solar PV and battery energy storage systems (BESS) can play a central role in restoring capacity and strengthening energy security.
According to the IEA, distributed solar has already been crucial in quickly bringing new generation online since large conventional and utility-scale plants became vulnerable targets during the war. The agency estimates that to create a more decentralised and resilient power system, Ukraine will need to deploy around 24 GW of distributed solar PV and 5.6 GWh of BESS by 2030. Today, the country has roughly 7 GW of distributed solar installed, so capacity would need to more than quadruple this decade.
Existing support schemes and their limits.
Ukraine has already introduced several incentives to encourage households and businesses to invest in rooftop solar and storage:
Low-interest loans provided by the government, linked to a net-billing scheme that allows households to export surplus power at the hourly wholesale market price minus grid charges and taxes.
A Green Tariff that pays around €135/MWh for electricity from small residential solar systems, currently scheduled to end by 2029.
Under these programmes and current deployment trends, the IEA calculates that Ukraine could add roughly 3.1 GW of additional distributed solar PV and 1.4 GWh of BESS by 2030, at an approximate public cost of €1.4 billion. However, this would fall far short of the level needed to fully decentralise and secure the power system.
Three policy options to accelerate solar plus storage
To go beyond the baseline scenario, the report sets out three possible policy options for the period 2025–2030. Each combines different levels of financial support and regulatory reform for small-scale solar and storage.
1. “Fast and strong growth” – investment grants and guaranteed tariffs
The first option is built around a generous investment grant combined with a stable revenue mechanism:
Direct public support would cover at least 60% of the total investment cost for small solar-plus-storage systems.
A fixed, predictable tariff would be offered for selling all generated electricity to an energy supplier or a state-owned entity, reducing market and policy risk for investors.
This scenario would enable the full build-out of 24 GW of distributed PV and 5.6 GWh of BESS by 2030, but the fiscal cost is high – around €17.5 billion over the decade.
2. “Enhancing current policies” – scaling up loans and extending incentives
The second option focuses on improving and expanding the schemes that already exist:
Making low- or zero-interest loans more widely available, including capacity building for local banks and “one-stop shop” services at the municipal level.
Ensuring prosumers can easily access these loans and reducing administrative barriers to installing rooftop solar and storage.
Introducing a new feed-in tariff for distributed solar after 2030, available only to systems installed before the end of the current decade, to provide long-term revenue stability.
With this package, the IEA expects around 18 GW of solar PV and 5.6 GWh of BESS could be deployed by 2030, at an estimated public cost of about €16.1 billion.
3. “System-friendly long-term scheme” – real-time self-consumption and BESS incentives
The third option proposes a more market-oriented, real-time self-consumption model:
A new real-time or hourly self-consumption scheme, similar to Ukraine’s existing net-billing programme, but with an additional bonus payment on top of the wholesale price for surplus electricity fed into the grid.
A direct incentive for BESS that would cover around 25% of battery investment costs, encouraging households and businesses to combine solar with storage.
This approach is less costly for the state – roughly €1.9 billion – and could lead to the deployment of around 7 GW of solar PV and 3 GWh of BESS by 2030. While it would not close the full gap to the decentralisation target, it strengthens flexibility and aligns incentives with real-time grid needs.
Implications for distributed storage providers
Provisional figures from Ukraine’s solar association suggest that about 500 MW of new solar capacity was installed in the first half of 2025 alone, underscoring how quickly the market can react when supportive policies and urgent energy-security needs align.
For distributed storage manufacturers and solution providers, the IEA’s policy roadmap highlights several important trends:
Solar-plus-storage as the new standard: Most new rooftop systems in Ukraine are already being paired with batteries, reflecting the need for backup power, grid flexibility, and self-consumption during outages.
Strong role for prosumers: All three policy options assume that households and businesses will be major investors in small-scale PV and BESS, supported by grants, loans, or market-based tariffs.
Focus on resilience and decentralisation: Distributed resources reduce single points of failure, can be installed quickly, and require less new transmission infrastructure – making them particularly suited for countries facing grid disruption and reconstruction needs.
As Ukraine and its international partners refine their policy choices, high-quality and reliable battery storage solutions will be essential to ensure that distributed PV not only increases generation capacity, but also delivers stable, controllable power to homes, businesses, hospitals, and critical infrastructure.
Source: International Energy Agency, “Policy Options to Accelerate Distributed Solar PV in Ukraine”; pv magazine report on the IEA’s findings.