• Energy Research

In the current conditions of sharp change in demand and instability of markets, there is a need to develop a method and evaluation criterion that would meet the sustainable scenario of a supplying goods system including the consumer-driven concept. The analysis of goods distribution methods showed that to assess the integrated efficiency between the supply system and its end-consumers, it is advisable to apply integrated criterion efficiency—generalized distribution utility. The developed indicator takes into account the profit of the distribution channel (or its participants) and the generalized costs of end users during shopping activity. Based on the proposed indicator, the feasibility of using vehicle capacity is substantiated, which provides the maximum generalized distribution costs value and corresponds to the optimal sustainable distribution in consumer-driven logistics.

The Ukrainian renewable energy sector has demonstrated a significant increase in its renewable power capacity, especially for solar and wind power plants. Decommissioning the end-of-life equipment in Ukraine has not yet taken place, but it is only a matter of time. With this in mind, this paper assesses the quantities and the market values of the materials that could potentially be recovered from used solar and wind power plants, and it estimates the impact of their decommissioning on employment in Ukraine. It has been estimated that approximately 8.9 GW of solar power plants, and 3.6 GW of wind power plants, will be decommissioned from 2044 to 2059, and that the cost of the raw materials recovered could reach EUR 421.4 million and EUR 124.6 million in 2021 prices, respectively, compared to the decommissioning costs of EUR 240.1 million and EUR 49.1 million, respectively. Decommissioning renewable power plants will require the creation of new jobs, including 11.6 thousand in the solar industry, and 2.8 thousand in the wind sector. It is essential to amend the legislation in Ukraine, particularly Directive 2012/19/EU, to introduce the principle of the extended producer responsibility to ensure the efficient recycling of renewable power plant end-of-life equipment in Ukraine in the future.

Renewable energy technologies play a crucial role in solving global energy and environmental issues, and the pace of the energy transition directly depends on improving their efficiency. Presently, the development and implementation of renewable energy systems are ensured mainly through state funding, the possibilities of which are limited. The potential of attracting private investments depends directly on their impact on companies’ profitability indicators, and the uncertainty regarding the return on investments is one of the main barriers affecting investors’ decision-making. Based on a vector autoregressive model for analysing the stationary time series, the paper explores the impact of long-term investments and research and development costs in renewable energy technologies on the financial performance of ten of the largest companies operating in this field. The study’s results showed that investments and spending on research and development positively affect such companies’ profitability indicators as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, earnings before interest and tax, net income, and return on investment. The obtained results can be used to substantiate the economic effectiveness of investments in developing and improving renewable energy technologies when forming the companies’ financial policies to support them.