Ukrainian businessmen are buying broken-down Tesla cars in the US to produce devices to supply electricity to small local businesses and residential buildings in conditions of acute shortages, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported, citing its sources.
According to them, “a dozen of these small installations” can be made from a discarded Tesla. Each such home battery with a capacity of 5 kW·h allows you to maintain lighting and the operation of electrical appliances in the apartment for 10 hours. According to one of the entrepreneurs, the price of an old Tesla, including delivery, is about 10,000 USD, in addition to selling mini-batteries, they also sell car parts.
"This is just one of many methods used by Ukrainian businesses in connection with the regular - up to 20 hours a day - power outages the country faces" after the destruction of more than half of the production facilities, the publication notes.
Before the start of the war, Ukraine produced about 55 GW of electricity; now that figure has fallen below 20 GW.
Overall, according to Ukrainian authorities, more than half of the country's entire energy system was damaged, almost 80% of heat and a third of water power were destroyed. According to the head of the company "Ukrenergo" Vladimir Kudrytskyi, Ukraine will not be able to restore all damaged power units before the onset of winter, some of them are completely destroyed. In particular, the Kanev hydroelectric power plant, Dniproges, Ladizhinskaya, Kurakhovskaya, Zmievskaya thermal power plants were damaged. Tripoli TPP, the largest power generation facility in the Kyiv region, was completely destroyed; The Burshchyna TPP in Ivano-Frankivsk cannot be restored.
Ukrainian authorities are currently in talks with partners hoping to increase electricity imports to 2 GW before the start of the heating season. However, as the deputy head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy Svetlana Grinchuk admitted, even the increased volume of imports will not be able to cover all energy consumption under the current conditions.