It is known that the state of Ukraine produces so much energy that it can afford to export it to its western neighbors — Hungary and Slovakia. This is possible thanks to the work of our thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric power plants. At the same time, some plants pollute the atmosphere and eat up the country’s mineral resources in immeasurable quantities, others carry a potential danger of radiation pollution, and others have a negative impact on rivers. The safest and most promising are the so-called alternative methods of energy generation — geothermal, solar and wind power plants.
Unfortunately, in Ukraine less than one percent of all energy is produced by unconventional methods. The largest number of wind farms in the country is 16. One of the most interesting objects in this «family» is the Donuzlavskaya wind farm.
It is located in one of the most romantic places of Crimea. It is the western part of the peninsula, on the shores of Lake Donuzlav. The shores of the long and narrow, like a fjord, the reservoir is cut by many small bays. The bottom of the reservoir is covered with a thick layer of sapropelic silt, similar to that for which Moynak Lake is famous. Its shores are very steep, so the windmills standing over the cliffs have a stunning view.
Mr. Kuchma owes its appearance to the Donuzlavskaya Wind Farm. In 1992, while he was still a «simple» Prime Minister, Leonid Danilovich provided his native Yuzhmash with a job. It means that the future second President of the country agreed with the Europeans on free transfer of obsolete technology of wind turbines production and a dozen samples of products dismantled in Gibraltar to Ukraine. Having received the state order, documentation and samples, Yuzhmash manufactured more than a thousand wind turbines or wind turbines.
The same Kuchma took care to allocate the most tasty plots of Crimean land — in Shchelkino and Sudak, on Kazantip and near Donuzlav — for the project of introducing alternative ways of energy generation in Ukraine. In 1993 the Donuzlav hydroelectric power plant was launched. By the way, it received the very Gibraltar wind turbines, which work flawlessly to this day. Those that were urgently made at a dying post-Soviet heavy industry enterprise began to break down and fail very quickly. Depending on wind intensity, the station currently produces 10-100 kWh of electricity.
In 2008, the relevant ministry transferred the Donuzlavskaya TPP to Energoatom, which is in charge of all nuclear power plants in the country. «Energoatom undertook to modernize and re-equip its alternative counterpart.
Today, the Donuzlavskaya wind farm is operating, but its activities do not cover the needs of the nearest settlements. But those who are on holiday in Crimea on the territory of the Black Sea region, are happy to be photographed against the background of techno-cosmic landscapes of the coastal steppe. Although, these attractions of Popovka are a bit inferior in popularity to the aesthetics of the antique estate Belyaus or the possibilities of the marina for 300 yachts with full infrastructure built on Donuzlav.