Serhii Pronenko: “Energy Club is where decisions are tested before they become concrete, panels or equipment”

This year, Energy Club celebrates its 10th anniversary. Over the past decade, the Club has brought together energy companies, experts and professionals to address the industry’s most pressing challenges and develop practical solutions.

To mark this milestone, Energy Club member companies are sharing their experience of being part of the community, discussing its practical value and reflecting on how the Club’s role has evolved alongside Ukraine’s energy market.

Among them is SOLAR GARDEN LLC, a Ukrainian engineering company that designs and delivers renewable energy projects, including solar power plants, energy storage systems and integrated hybrid PV + ESS solutions.

Serhii Pronenko, Founder and CEO of SOLAR GARDEN LLC, spoke about the value that membership in Energy Club brings to the company, the importance of benchmarking its own calculations against the market, how the needs of energy businesses have evolved, and why the Club is ultimately about finding solutions.

– Mr. Pronenko, how long has SOLAR GARDEN been a member of Energy Club, and what prompted you to join the Club?

– SOLAR GARDEN has been a member of Energy Club since 2025. We joined the industry community because our work is not only about technology. It is also about banks’ readiness to finance generation projects, grid connection conditions, the position of distribution system operators, and many other factors. These issues cannot be resolved in isolation. Energy Club is a place where such matters are discussed in a practical and substantive way.

– What practical value does participation in the Club bring to SOLAR GARDEN?

– We can see changes early – changes that eventually become part of our day-to-day work – and prepare for them in advance. We gain contacts that would be difficult to establish without personal connections. And we have a place where we can benchmark our own figures against those of others, because it is much cheaper to make a mistake in a payback calculation in a meeting room than on an actual project.

Of course, everyone presents their figures differently, but you need at least to understand what competitors are doing and how the market as a whole is responding.

– Which Energy Club formats are most useful to you?

– Forums work. After our colleague Olha Slyshynska spoke at the “From Project to Megawatt: Engineering the New Energy System of Ukraine” forum for technical professionals, presenting our experience with industrial energy storage systems, we received several concrete proposals right there in the room.

That is valuable to us, so we participate in the Club to exchange experience and look for potential clients.

– How do you think the role of Energy Club in Ukraine’s energy market has changed over the past 10 years?

– Ten years ago, renewable energy was still a niche, and the Club was more of a meeting place for like-minded people. Then energy ceased to be merely an economic issue and became a matter of national security.

The agenda changed completely: discussions about tariffs gave way to issues of resilience, decentralisation and energy storage. Energy Club helped the industry articulate these issues in a language that was clear to the government and investors.

Today, it is a platform where you can find solutions, hear an opinion similar to your own – or, on the contrary, a completely different one. Ultimately, it is about solutions.

– What would you wish Energy Club for the next 10 years?

— I would like the community to continue talking in numbers rather than intentions. I would like the Club’s position to be heard, its audience to grow, and experts to continue sharing their knowledge and making it accessible to a wider audience.

– Which Energy Club event, discussion or initiative has been particularly memorable for your team?

– The forum on energy decentralisation, where we presented industrial energy storage systems. What I remember most was not the presentation itself, but the questions that followed.

People were no longer asking, “Does it work?” They were asking, “How long does it take to pay back, and how should it be calculated?” Two years earlier, those same people were asking why batteries were needed at all.

– In one sentence: Energy Club for SOLAR GARDEN is…

– A place where decisions are tested before they become concrete, panels or equipment.

Over the past ten years, Energy Club has become much more than a meeting place for energy market professionals. It is an environment where changes can be identified in advance, different professional perspectives can be heard, existing approaches can be tested, and solutions that work in practice can be found.

The energy sector is changing every day, and so are its challenges, technologies and rules of the game. That is why a space for open professional dialogue remains so important – a place where ideas do not remain mere words, but are tested against reality.

Because a strong energy market is built not only on technology and investment. It is also built by people who are ready to talk, share experience and work together to find solutions.