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Christmas in Ukraine - celebrating in a winter of war and energy crisis
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Christmas in Ukraine - celebrating in a winter of war and energy crisis

Enjoy a Christmas special edition from Ukraine - a glimpse into life under energy siege, and new renewable energy solutions.

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A Ukrainian baby is given an emergency lamp to play with during a power cut.

Dear Santa,

I don't need toys and I don't need sweets. I would just like a lamp that stays on when there is no electricity." 🎄- boy in Ukraine at NGO Care in Action's creative Hub writing to St. Nicolaus.

It's been 25 years since my parents first set foot in Ukraine to start Care in Action, the team pivoted quickly since the war - helping vulnerable children find safe homes, continue education, and overcome trauma.

For this Christmas special edition, I spoke to Maria Boiko, the Director of ‘Turbota V Dii’ - the Ukrainian branch of Germany-based Care in Action.


For Maria Boiko, this will be a Christmas unlike any other. Like millions of Ukrainians, her life was turned upside down at Russia’s shock invasion.

“And a lot has changed since February 24th. We work with children in care and with foster families and vulnerable youth. But within a week of the war starting, we expanded our work to support internally displaced people. Many, many people have come to L’viv since the war, one of the reasons is because it feels safe as it's the most western part of Ukraine. And the other reason is that it’s a cultural hub, and it has a lot of opportunities.

“From March onwards we started renting out beds in hostels to accommodate people who had to leave their homes. Sometimes we would accommodate 200 people at a time and we added new services for internally displaced people. Because after the shock, the main thing people needed was a secure place and food.

“Many people needed psychological support, because they mentally refuse to believe that the war will last for a while, and they didn't want to look for a job. Like ‘why would I look for a job. If I'm not going to stay here. I will go home back home soon.’ So we got a psychologist to help people recover. We hired a social worker in July to accompany families to help them with a range of needs, like legal advice, medical treatment, getting needed documents with a certificate of internal displaced person or getting a child into school. Some people decided to emigrate as refugees and we helped them with transfers to the border. We also started a care centre, which provides 20-30 beds for women and children,” says Maria.

Maria Boiko (left) delivers aid to Ukrainians fleeing the war

But despite the tragedy of war, the chaos of blackouts, and living through an energy crisis where the country has lost 40% of it’s electricity due to Russian attacks on the grid, Maria says Ukrainians remain determined to celebrate Christmas in style:

“On Christmas, we traditionally have 12 dishes.”

In honour of the 12 disciples, the traditional Ukrainian Christmas lays a feast with 12 dishes; verenyky (dumplings), Holubtsi (rolled cabbage), compot (dried fruit compot), fish, borsch, pancakes, pyrizhky (hand pies), Kapusniak (sour cabbage soup), Kutia (sweet grain pudding), peas, Pampushky (yeast bread)…

“We also put Didukh…wheat stalks on the table - it symbolises the spirit of our ancestors,” says Maria.

“Children go Christmas carolling, they sing for their neighbours and its a chance for them to earn some sweets and coins. We also have a nativity skit tradition, where a crew dresses up and goes door-to-door to perform.

“For believers, the most important thing is to go to church. There are some Christmas services that last all night.

"To keep our spirits high, Ukrainians don’t want to give up traditions which make us happy, and celebrating will be a sign that Ukrainians are unbreakable.”


What impact have the energy grid attacks had on Ukraine?

Let's start with the bigger picture. It’s had a big impact on business, and some businesses had to stop. Others had to learn how to survive, and maybe they had some shortages in the companies or had to raise prices, because now it's big expense to buy generators or other things to make it work.

And I was reading an article, that one big company which works with in the metallurgy sphere, they had 5,000 employees, and now they have 20.

It is expected that by the end of this year, 30 % of the population will be without work.

We have regular scheduled power cuts. And power cuts often last for four hours – sometimes you can have at least eight hours a day without electricity.

But sometimes there are also emergency power cuts which are unexpected. So sometimes you have 16 hours a day without light, it affects hot water and cooking.

There are some buildings that don't have a gas supply and they fully depend on electricity, electrical stoves, and heating – so they would not have heating or be able to cook so people come up with alternative solutions like a portable stove.

I guess when there are many children in a family, it's really difficult to do everything within the four hours of having electricity. A lot of children have long-distance education, and it’s really difficult to keep up with school because of the power cuts – you don’t have WiFi, you don’t have heating.

How has your personal life been affected?

In my personal life, at the office, we are able to work because we always have light. There are some rumours that there is a court office or something important nearby. We have a creative hub with a daycare for children so it's not affected.

But I live just three minutes walk from here, and we have power cuts and my husband works remotely teaching English so when we have power cuts, he can't work at all. He would be out of work, but luckily, because we have WiFi at my office at Creative Hub, when there is some space here he comes here.

Our heating depends on the light, we tried to put an electrical heater when there is heating so because the gas heating doesn't give much warmth. And also we just sleep under a huge warm blanket, so it's warm under the blanket, but if I just touch the top of my head, I can feel how cold it is.

How have you been supporting people through the winter?

We’ve been providing people with warm blankets, sleeping bags, and camp lights which can last up to 24 hours when there is no light, and it’s really helpful. I use it to cook, read, and when I go to the bathroom or have a shower.

Just this Monday I travelled with a colleague to family-style orphanages to bring a displaced family a generator. A family is starting again here after their home and the hospital and schools were destroyed in Mykolaiv. They don’t intend to go back - there are no prospects for the children with the school completely destroyed.

The Father is an electrician so they made a plan for how to make it work at home with the generator. The generator will help the kids to keep up with their education, because the power cuts impact education a lot, and they have several teenagers. One of the teenagers is taking an English course which will give her access to take part in an exchange programme in the US. So for her it's also highly important to do that course and learn English, so they were very happy.

The Care in Action team transporting donated generators to Ukraine

What’s the best way for readers to help with donations?

You can check our Care in Action website, and donate via bank card or through Paypal.


Karolina Ottspodina, Founder of We Do Solar, is a Ukrainian entrepreneur based in Berlin. She is on a mission to make home grown renewable energy available to everyone – whether or not you own a home.

The We Do Solar kit consists of 8 solar panels that can be installed on your balcony, they’re super lightweight and thin and they’re easy to install. We have an app where you see how much CO2 you’re saving and how much electricity you’re producing.

“We launched in February this year. It was a complete coincidence that the war broke out at the same time. It definitely was a super hard time because I also have family, and a lot of friends in Ukraine. I was going to the borders, picking people up, developing my product, talking to investors, and it was just a completely crazy time. But now it's a bit easier because I know that everyone is at least safe,” says Karolina.

“Right now, we’re shipping to 24 countries in Europe and we will have the UK on that list very soon. There is huge demand for the product and of course, when the war broke out, our demand went up.”

Is this a solution that could help people in Ukraine?

Absolutely, in the future. We are in contact with the government in Ukraine and can launch in Ukraine when the time is right.

Right now, what is needed in Ukraine is generators which are off-grid. My solution works when the grid is there.

How much of a cost reduction do people get with your balcony-installed solar solution?

It depends on how much you can install in your home and every single country has its own regulation on how much you can install by yourself without an electrician. So for example, in Germany, it's 600 watt and this is what our set currently provides. It's 600 watt, and that can reduce up to 25% of your electricity bills.

Of course, if you want to install more and you have the space also to install more, you can do so with the help of an electrician.

How will you be celebrating Christmas?

I do celebrate Christmas of course, but it's nothing big. It's more having a meal with your loved ones, rather than anything else. So I guess for me, it's just calling my family and making sure that they're okay and just having a conversation.

And because of some of my beliefs, I don't have a Christmas tree. I have a palm decorated in my home because we don't need to cut down trees I think for this holiday. I hope that many people will change their ways as well and will realise that it's not really about having a tree in their household, but it's more about family and just being together. And that's what's most important, not to harm our planet but to do something, which is good for the soul.


Looking for investors

Soltiles developed an aesthetic, highly efficient and affordable solar roofing tile with curbside appeal, that generates 40% more power than comparable and with Li+ battery. It provides energy 24/7.

BIPV is expected to reach a market value of nearly US$100 billion by 2031 - PV Tech the building-integrated PV (BIPV) market is expected to reach US$94.4 billion by 2031, up from US$11.7 billion recorded in 2021.
Most researchers agree that Climate Change is a crisis that will have severe effects on earth starting 2030. The $500Billon annual damages currently will increase to $2.0+ Trillion in 2030. Putting solar roofs on every home will reduce GHG by 38% and UP TO 55% if we power all electric cars via our roofs.

The opportunity

Quasi Equity/ for product certification Institutional capital
Institutional capital
Total
10,000,000$ 95,000.000$ 95,000,000$
200,000,000$
1. Offer: Soltiles is selling Preferred quasi-equity shares in manufacturing its solar roofing tiles. Investors will receive all profits before any other distributions are made.
2. Request: Soltiles is requesting scaleup investments of 10M€ to 85€++ quasi-equity, it will be matched by an institutional fund after product certification.
3. Financial Benefits: The Investors will receive at least 5 bottom line benefits: 1) 18-40% return on equity investment,
2) 946 Million tons of Green House Reduction,
3) Created over 1,500 job equivalents (direct, indirect and induced jobs) 4) Creating 4.6€ Billion economic growth
5) Meets Fiduciary Golden standard.
6) Awarded Solar Impulse Foundation Economic Soundness Award. 7) Awarded Two H2020 Grants
4. Market Drivers for 250MW manufacturing facility in France and USA:
a. 30% Manufacturing investment Tax Credit for solar and LI-Ion battery
b. 100% finance for solar products made in France at 0% interest rate
c. 100% waiver on electricity tax for our customers
d. 100% waiver of social security tax for manufacturing up to 200€M in revenue
e. 80% of French people want to make their OWN electricity according to a public survey.
f. Request: Soltiles is requesting scale-up investments, it will be matched by
institutionals.
g. Europe has Green Deals for converting society to 100% fossil free by 2045.
h. Moderate business risk offset by favourable energy transition market.
5. SOLTILES IN THE LEAD
Solar remains a favorite target for negative commentary and doom and gloom pundit predictions, however, the company remains stubbornly successful overall. It's had a couple of ... days, but its valuation remains above $350Million.

Soltiles has a first-mover's advantage that's hard for rivals to challenge, let alone beat. It has positioned itself as the Ultra High efficient solar tiles market leader at a time when a historic pivot from Fossil Fuels to solar power and batteries looks extremely likely in the near future. It has a very prominent name despite having close to zero advertising budget, and it is proposing investing in two factories aimed at meeting surging demand, and likely to help capture market share once the electric metamorphosis "takes off."

News out of Europe indicates approval for certification and demonstration will come in the immediate future, with Soltiles third generation Tandem cells built starting in Fall 2024 and Level 4.0 automated manufacture ramping up from there. In the US, another vast potential market, planned expansions likely to soon increase this to another 250MW to 500MW. Soltiles, where it recently relocated its headquarters, is a facility expected to come online by 2024's beginning, which will supposedly be producing 250MW to 500MW annually.
6. Soltiles roof system includes a Breakthrough new battery chemistry that we have added to our product. We present a low risk high reward IMPACT investment opportunity that is 2x more efficient than standard Li-ion battery.

Contact Soltiles about investing at: tfaust@soltiles.net


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