The Sun Shines Only for the Klyuevs

The sun shines only for the Klyuevs

87% of all electricity produced by Ukrainian solar power stations is generated by the Klyuev brothers’ Activ Solar. Its revenue was no less than UAH 3 billion in 2013.

Andriy Klyuev/Photo from website of National Security and Defense Council

30 January 201414:12

Even in winter, when the Crimean sky is covered with clouds and there is barely any sun, the solar units of Perovo power station, the largest in Ukraine, produces electricity. This solar power station is managed by the company Activ Solar, which is connected to Andriy Klyuev, head of the presidential administration. It produces electricity year-round and sells it at the highest tariff in the country.

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ActivSolaragreedtoshowusitssolarunits. The Perovo power station is not far from Simferopol. The 200 ha area is surrounded by a simple wire fence with minimal security.

“People break in more out of curiosity, but they lose interest when they see that there is nothing to go for,” said a representative of Activ Solar. “There is basically nothing to steal since a solar unit is almost impossible to dismantle. Moreover, without special equipment, it is of no use to thieves.”

Technical personnel have four-wheelers to move around the large territory and there are small observation sites from which you can see the entire territory.

The operation of the solar power station is very simple. The units convert ultraviolet rays into electricity, which is sent to Ukrenergo’s substation 100 meters away. From there, it goes directly to consumers.

As it turns out, the electricity is produced not only during sunny, but also overcast weather. Productivity significantly drops only in very unfavorable conditions. The equipment is installed with consideration of the smallest details. For example, at no time of the day does any one light element cast a shadow on another. The units are capable of surviving large chicken egg size hail.

Regardless of its size, the station is almost fully independent and does not require the intervention of staff. The main function of employees is to monitor the functionality of equipment.

What is Activ Solar?

The company includes about 30 of 50 enterprises that receive the “green tariff” – the opportunity to sell electricity at the price of UAH 5/kWh. Solar power costs Ukrainians 25 times more than the cheapest electricity produced by hydroelectric power stations.

Cost of electricity, paid to producers

Producer / Price (kopeck per kWh)
Hydroelectric power stations / 22
Nuclear power stations / 23.2
Thermal power stations / 61.7
Combined heating and power stations / 97
Wind power stations / 123.7
Small hydroelectric power stations / 127.4
Solar power stations / 503

Insider sent a request the National Electricity Regulatory Commission to indicate the installed capacity of all solar power stations that receive the green tariff.

It turned out that Activ Solar is not just the biggest player in the market of solar power production. It is an absolute monopolist. This company’s solar power stations have 87% of the installed capacity of all Ukrainian enterprises that produce expensive solar power.

Solar power is the Klyuev brothers’ most actively developing business.

Andriy Klyuev is an official and politician with a very colorful biography. When Viktor Yanukovych was elected president, he became the first vice prime minister in the government of Mykola Azarov. He was named the secretary of the National Defense and Security Council in February 2012 and head of the presidential administration on January 24 of this year.

According to his declaration, he and his family earned UAH 40 million in 2011. The closest associate of Andriy Klyuev is his brother, Serhiy, an MP in the Party of Regions.

Perovo solar power station. Photo by Maksim Kudimets/Insider

Formally Austria’s Activ Solar GmbH belongs to the company P&A Corporate Trust from Lichtenstein. However, it is headed by Austrian Kaveh Ertefai, the son-in-law of Serhiy Klyuev.

Since the company was founded in 2008, the Ukrainian companies that manage the solar power stations have been registered directly to Activ Solar. However, after scandalous publications in media, the ownership structure of these solar power stations stopped being transparent.

In multiple “solars,” among the founders are Serhiy Rozya from the little city Mena, Chernihiv oblast, and Serhiy Nadtochiy from the village Novosilki, Kyiv oblast.

Moreover, multiple offshore companies from Austria and Cyprus became the owners of these companies. Among them are Cyprus companies: Aurnia Commercial,Gunaldi Commercial,Krasolena Investment,Kvalisto Holdings,Midesiano Investments,Milidenio Holdings,Palmatum Services.

And also Austrian companies: CEE Clean Economic Energy AG,Diamond Aircraft Industries GmbH,Diamond Informatics GmbH,Diamond Verwaltungs GmbH,TVH Verwaltungsgesellschaft GmbH.

The complete ownership structureof Activ Solar was compiled by the portal “Nashi Hroshi.”

ItisinterestingtonotethatonthewebsiteofActiv Solarthere is a list of solar power stations, while the “green tariff” is being received by legal entities with totally different names. Thanks to this fact, it is not too obvious that this company concentrated pretty much all of the solar power in Ukraine.

Owners of solar power stations

Total installed capacity: / Company:
Andriy Klyuev / 571.69 MW / Activ Solar, 29 enterprises / Head of the Presidential Administration, Andriy Klyuev and his brother, MP from the Party of Regions, Serhiy Klyuev, are connected to the Austrian company Activ Solar. Officially, it is owned by Kaveh Ertefai, Serhiy Klyuev’s son-in-law. The company includes 29 of 50 Ukrainian enterprises that receive the “green tariff” from the National Electricity Regulatory Commission. Activ Solar produces about 87% of all solar power in Ukraine.
Serhiy Evlanchik / 19.84 MW / Grin Agro Servis
Rengy Trostyanets
Rengy Bershad
Rengy Tomashpil / The owner of the company Ukrprodukt, Serhiy Evlanchik, and his partner, Narek Arutyunyan, in October 2012 received EUR 5.7 million to build a few solar power stations in Vinnitsya oblast. The project is managed by the company Rengy Development, which is headed by Arutyunyan.
Aleksandr Ledida / 15.49 MW / Solar Energy Plus / The company Solar Energy Plus manages two relatively powerful solar power stations in Zakarpattya oblast. It belongs to associates and family of the local governor Aleksandr Ledida. The company’s shares belong to the families of the Zakarpattya Oblast Council MP Serhiy Kovach and head of the Uzhorod Regional City Administration Ruslan Chornak. Among the founders are also the daughters of Ledida – Aleksandra and Ekaterina.
Aleksandr Repkin / 11.01 MW / Alten-Invest
Tokmak Solar Energy / Aleksandr Repkin, who is originally from Donetsk, built solar power stations in Vinnitsya and Zaporizhya oblasts. The largest solar power station, with an installed capacity of 10 MW, was launched in Tokmaksok Region of Zaporizhya oblast in 2012.
Valeriy Kelestin / 9.8 MW / Solarenergo / Valeriy Kelestin, MP from the Party of Regions and his brother Yuriy control Solarenergo through the company Ukrenergo-Servis. The businessmen are originally from the city Rohatin, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast.
Zinoviy Kozitskiy / 7 MW / Sambir Solar Power Station
Sambir Solar Power Station-2
Bohodchanska-1 Solar Power Station / Lviv businessman Zinoviy Kozitskiy is famous as the owner of gas extraction assets. He owns the company Ukrnaftegazinvest, which started operation in 2005. It expanded its sphere of interests into alternative energy in 2012.
Elena Arzanova / 3.35 MW / Energoinvest / The company Energoinvest controls two solar power stations in Vinnitsya oblast: Galzbievskoy and Sloboda-Bushanskoy. The management company is registered in Zhytomyr and the family of the owner Arzanova is from Luhansk oblast.
Batima Babich / 3 MW / Vinnitsya-Energoservis
Ekosolar Invest
Evrosolar / Vinnitsya entrepreneur Batima Babich together with her partner, Aleksandr Labenskiy, manage several small solar power stations in Vinnitsya oblast.
Aleksandr Nikitorovich / 2.99 MW / Novosvit / Vinnitsya entrepreneur Nikitorovich manages the Novosvit foreign economic association. He is the president of the association of electricity producers at small hydroelectric power stations, and at the same time advisor to the governor of Vinnitsya oblast.
Ihor Tinniy / 2.9 MW / Akvanova Hidroresurs / The 37-year-old businessman is the owner of several Kyiv restaurants and business partner of Dmitriy Firtash and Ivan Fursin. Akvnanova Group of Companies from Zakarpattya oblast own 15 small hydroelectric power stations with a total capacity of 25 MW.
Serhiy Omelyanenko / 1.33 MW / Omelyanenko Farm Company / Farmer Omelyanenko cultivates more than 4,000 ha in Kirovohrad oblast. As part of his enterprise, there is a mill, bakery, store and small solar power station.
Petr Mrishchuk / 0.3 MW / Energogarant / The company is managed by the Mrishchuk family from Vinnitsya. Among the owners of Energogarant are Petr Mrishchuk and his children Aleksandr and Lyudmila.
Vadim Grib / 0.3 MW / VinSolar / Grib – owner of one of the largest investment companies in Ukraine, Tekt, partner of businessman Vasiliy Khmelnitskoho, former advisor of Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy when he was head of the Security Service of Ukraine.
Yuriy Shirma / 0.03 MW / Zorya 2003 / Shirma is an entrepreneur from Luhansk oblast. Previously he worked as the director of the Partizanska mine, which is part of the state mining holding Antratsit.

Sofar, Energorynokprovidedstatisticsonlyfor 11 monthsoflastyear. Even from that, it is clear that all electricity produced in our country in 2013 cost about UAH 105 billion.

According to the statisticsof the wholesale market operator, of that money, about 3.48%, which is about UAH 3.65 billion, will be received by companies that acquired a “green tariff” and a license to generate solar power.

The Klyuevs’ companies of Activ Solar own about 30 powerful solar power stations, which generate 87% of all solar power in Ukraine.

It is not hard to calculate that the Klyuevs’ companies received no less than UAH 3 billion in 2013 from Energorynok.

Key to success

In order to receive revenue from the sale of energy produced by solar power stations, you need three things: cheap land, cheap solar units and a high tariff.

The land was allocated to the Klyuevs’ companies thanks to the high position of Andriy. Forexample, the land for Activ Solar’s solar power stations was allocated by the Council of Ministers of Crimea, headed by Anatoliy Mohilov.Until November 2011, he was the Minister of Internal Affairs in the government, when Andriy Klyuev was the First Vice Prime Minister.

Photo: Maksim Kudimets/Insider

Polysilicon for the solar power stations’ elements is supplied by the Zaporizhya Polysilicon Plant, which also belongs to Activ Solar. Thanks to this asset, the Klyuevs benefited from a legalrequirementfora minimumof localcomponentsintheconstructionofalternativepowercompanies.

This standard was approved by a resolution of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission in the middle of 2012. The main idea of this standard was that starting from the middle of this year in order to launch any power station with alternative power sources, no less than 50% of materials for its construction must be from local producers.

As it is known, a big part of alternative power projects is from investments from abroad. And equipment can be purchased from abroad too. This is how it was, for example, with the construction of the Botievo Wind Power Station owned by Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK.

The National Electricity Regulatory Commission issues licenses to produce electricity and establishes the “green tariff.” Where does such loyalty to a certain official come from?

At all times when Viktor Yanukovych has influenced state policies, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission has been always headed by Serhiy Titenko. He was appointed to this position in 2004 and 2007 when Yanukovych was Prime Minister and again in 2010 when Yanukovych became President.

Titenko was born in Kherson oblast, but he studied at the Donetsk Polytechnical Institute. Right now it is the Donetsk National Technical University. This is where Titenko continued working as an assistant, teacher and later chair of a department for almost 20 years – from 1979 to 1998.

Serhiy Titenko

At the same university, from 1986 to 1991, Andriy Klyuev workedas a research fellow. Clearly, both of the future state officials knew each other. Twenty years later, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, headed by Titenko, issues permission to receive the “green tariff” to more and more Activ Solar power stations.

This material was prepared with the support of the investigative journalism project SCOOP