The “Green Tariff” Runs Until 2030: Ukraine’s Renewable Buyback and Its Payment Arrears

Ukraine has a “green tariff” («зелений» тариф) system, under which the state buys electricity generated from solar and wind at a price it sets. It began with a 2008 legal amendment, and under the current law is set to continue until January 1, 2030. According to the state-owned Guaranteed Buyer (АТ «Гарантований покупець»), which handles the purchasing, as of September 2026 more than 890 companies belong to the group of producers selling electricity under the green tariff (the Guaranteed Buyer’s balancing group), with contracted capacity exceeding 7,000 megawatts.

The system has also become known for the state’s payments not proceeding as promised. This article, based on legislation and publications from the Guaranteed Buyer and the regulator (as confirmed in September 2026), sets out how the buyback prices were cut through legal amendments, how far payments currently stand, how power plants in occupied territory are treated, and how far the auctions that replaced fixed prices have progressed.

The “green tariff,” begun in 2008

The green tariff was introduced by a law of September 25, 2008 (No. 601-VI, “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding the Establishment of a ‘Green’ Tariff”). This law instructed the electricity regulator of the time to set the green tariff within three months. The current legal basis is the Law on Alternative Energy Sources (2003, No. 555-IV), which provides that the green tariff for producers, households, and others is to be set “until January 1, 2030.”

The same provision fixes the minimum green tariff at an amount converted into euros at the National Bank of Ukraine’s official exchange rate as of January 1, 2009. According to the regulator’s (the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission, NEURC) annual report for 2025, the weighted average green tariff in 2025 was 6.203 hryvnias per kilowatt-hour, up 8.5% from the previous year.

Who buys, and where the money comes from

The Law on the Electricity Market defines the Guaranteed Buyer as “the entity obligated to buy electricity from producers for whom a green tariff has been set.” The Guaranteed Buyer sells the electricity it buys on the market, and receives the shortfall from the transmission system operator, Ukrenergo, as payment for a “service for increasing the share of renewable energy.” The cost of this payment is included in the transmission tariff, part of the electricity charge paid by consumers.

According to the regulator, from January 1, 2025, the transmission tariff was set at a level that could fully cover 100% of this buyback payment. From January 1, 2026, the transmission system operator has also had to show the cost of renewable energy support separately on invoices.

Rooftop solar on homes and similar installations are bought not by the Guaranteed Buyer but by the local universal service provider (the retail supplier for households). The 2025 figures from the regulator’s annual report are as follows.

2019 and 2020: the buyback price was cut

A law of April 25, 2019 (No. 2712-VIII) introduced a system under which new, large power plants would receive support through auctions (аукціон) instead of a fixed price. Under the current Law on Alternative Energy Sources, wind plants with a capacity of more than 5 megawatts and solar plants with a capacity of more than 1 megawatt must take part in an auction to receive support.

A subsequent law of July 21, 2020 (No. 810-IX) cut the green tariff itself for plants already in operation. From August 1, 2020, a “reduction coefficient” has been applied to the original tariff, varying by when the plant started operating and its size. The main ones are as follows.

The same law, in exchange, also wrote in a state commitment: from July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2029, the green tariff would not be changed or revoked, and the coefficients would not be changed in a way that caused loss. It also required the Cabinet of Ministers to submit a bill for issuing five-year government bonds in 2021–2022 to repay the Guaranteed Buyer’s arrears as they stood on August 1, 2020. However, the effect of this provision has been suspended, one year at a time, by an annual law every year from 2022 to 2026.

How far payments currently stand

Each time it pays producers, the Guaranteed Buyer announces what percentage of the electricity charges for that period it has paid (the “payment level”). Its announcements in August and September 2026 were as follows.

While the most recent 10-day payment was set at 100% following an advance from Ukrenergo, on a monthly basis, about a quarter of the charges for electricity in July and August 2026 remained unpaid as of the announcements.

Measures have also been layered on to reduce arrears. According to the regulator, under a law of January 14, 2025 (No. 4213-IX), 10.7 billion hryvnias that Ukrenergo saved through its dispatch operations were allocated to repaying arrears in the balancing market and to producers of renewable energy, including household solar.

Power plants in occupied territory

Some wind and solar plants are located in territory occupied by Russia. A law of February 10, 2026 (No. 4777-IX) added special wartime provisions to the Law on the Electricity Market.

• The transmission system operator is to create and publish a register of renewable energy plants located in territory temporarily occupied by Russia
• The Ministry of Energy is to establish a special commission, including the regulator and the Security Service of Ukraine, among others, to determine the period of occupation and the period during which transmission to the grid controlled by Ukraine stopped
• Market participants are not to buy electricity generated by that plant during that period, nor pay for it
• For that period, any payment already made must be returned by the producer

The Guaranteed Buyer’s auction notice issued in September 2026 likewise excludes territory temporarily occupied by Russia and combat areas with no fixed end date from eligibility for support. The number and capacity of plants located in occupied territory will have to wait for the publication of this register.

From fixed prices to auctions

As for the auctions decided by the 2019 law, the first round listed in the Guaranteed Buyer’s schedule was for solar on October 31, 2024. That year’s auction was designated a “pilot auction” by a Cabinet order (No. 757-r of August 13, 2024). The schedule lists seven auctions in total, up to a wind auction on July 31, 2025. Winning producers receive support through a “market premium” mechanism rather than the green tariff: the Guaranteed Buyer pays the difference between the winning price and a reference price calculated from market prices. Under the current law, the support period is 12 years.

As of September 2026, the Guaranteed Buyer’s register of auction winners lists results for only the following two rounds.

For 2026, based on a Cabinet order (No. 298-r of April 1, 2026), auctions are scheduled for solar and solar-plus-storage on September 25, wind on September 30, and other sources on October 30. The October 30 auction has a support quota of 150,000 kW and a maximum bid price of 12 euro cents per kWh.

Whether the state can keep its commitments also affects whether it can attract new power plants for reconstruction. Insurance mechanisms that protect investment are covered in our article on who pays if a plant is destroyed in the war: political risk insurance for investment in Ukraine. The spread of distributed generation is covered in our article on generating electricity in smaller, distributed units in a country whose plants keep being targeted.