News | Headlines
Russia hits hard at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure
Ukraine Conflict update On 22 February Russia attacked Ukraine with dozens of strike drones and ballistic and cruise missiles, focusing on energy infrastructure and causing at least one death, said Ukrainian military and local officials, as reported by Reuters. The overnight strikes hit Kyiv and the region around the capital, the Black Sea port of Odesa and central Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine said on X that the strikes also targeted the Dnipro, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Poltava and Sumy regions. The main target of the attack was the energy sector, but residential buildings and railway were also damaged. Zelenskiy added that in one week, Russia launched more than 1300 drones, more than 1400 guided aerial bombs and 96 missiles against Ukraine. Progress on a USA brokered peace deal has been halting, with Russia demanding that Ukraine withdraw from parts of the eastern Donbas region it still controls, a proposition Kyiv has rejected. At least one person was killed and another five were wounded in the Kyiv region, with damage reported in five districts where more than a dozen houses were damaged. Odesa governor Oleh Kiper wrote on Telegram that a night-time drone attack on the energy infrastructure of the region caused fires that
had since been extinguished. The Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 50 missiles and 297 drones in overnight attacks and air defence units shot down or neutralised 33 missiles and 274 drones.
Russia is said to be attacking the Ukrainian energy system almost daily, striking thermal power plants and electrical substations. Moscow denies targeting civilians but says Ukraine’s civil infrastructure is a legitimate target because striking it can reduce Kyiv’s ability to wage war. Kyiv says the aim is to harm civilians and break the country’s morale.
Attacks in January
In January Russian armed forces persistently attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including five large-scale attacks in which several regions were targeted simultaneously. The attacks damaged or destroyed key components of the energy system in at least 17 regions of Ukraine, as well as in Kyiv city. These systematic and repeated attacks by the Russian Federation have created extreme hardship for the civilian population, the United Nations Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported on 13 February in its monthly update on civilian harm. The attacks, which continued into February, have caused extensive disruptions to
electricity, heating, and water across the country, affecting millions, as temperatures consistently remained below freezing. HRMMU visited temporary camps, hospitals, and educational facilities in areas most affected by the outages, documenting their impact on people’s lives during one of the harshest winters in recent years.
“The scale and persistence of these attacks underscore a grave disregard for the lives and well-being of civilians,” said Danielle Bell, head of HRMMU. “When power, heating, and water are repeatedly knocked out in the dead of winter, basic survival becomes a daily struggle.” They caused prolonged electricity outages across the country, which also resulted in disruption to heating and water services, particularly in multi-story buildings.
At least 161 civilians were killed and 757 injured across Ukraine in January, which is similar to the number in January 2025. Attacks with long-range weapons (missiles and drones) caused 39 % of all civilian casualties (54 killed; 305 injured), usually affecting urban centres far from the frontline. The majority of casualties occurred near the frontline (97 killed; 444 injured), with short-range drones remain the primary cause of civilian harm (54 killed; 207 injured).
Plan for Europe’s first commercial stellarator Germany Fusion power
Proxima Fusion has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bavaria, RWE and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) to connect the world’s first commercial stellarator fusion power plant to the grid in Europe. A stellarator is a nuclear fusion device that uses external magnetic coils to confine superheated plasma in a toroidal chamber. The agreement outlines the building of demonstration stellarator Alpha near IPP in Garching during the 2030s. It is
designed to achieve net energy gain and validate commercial technologies. Alpha paves the way for Stellaris, planned for Gundremmingen, a former nuclear fission power plant currently being decommissioned by RWE. Proxima Fusion will lead on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), IPP will handle plasma physics and the scientific leadership of demonstration stellarator Alpha, RWE will bring its power plant expertise, and Bavaria will support permitting and funding. The
partners aim to secure federal backing under Germany’s High-Tech Agenda, with Proxima funding 20% privately and Bavaria matching with another 20%.
Proxima CEO Francesco Sciortino called Stellaris “a milestone that visibly positions the European fusion industry on the global stage” while RWE CEO Markus Krebber highlighted Germany’s research edge and the Gundremmingen site’s advantages with its already existing infrastructure.
UK’s first geothermal plant powers up UK Geothermal power
The UK’s first deep geothermal power plant – capable of generating baseload electricity and extracting battery-grade lithium – has switched on at United Downs in Cornwall. The £50 m facility, developed by Geothermal Engineering Ltd, draws superheated water exceeding 190°C from the UK’s deepest borehole, more than 5 km underground. The geothermal heat drives an advanced Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system to generate 3 MW of weather- independent baseload electricity. Octopus
Energy has signed a long-term agreement to purchase the plant’s output and supply it to the national grid.
High lithium concentrations discovered during water testing have enabled co-production of up to 100 tonnes of zero-carbon lithium carbonate annually for use in electric vehicle and energy storage batteries. The electricity generation process cools the geothermal brine to optimal temperatures for lithium extraction before the fluid is reinjected underground in a closed-loop system.
6 | March 2026 |
www.modernpowersystems.com
The United Downs project was delivered in partnership with Exergy International, the Italian technology provider behind more than 500 MW of geothermal capacity worldwide. Exergy designed, engineered, supplied and constructed the ORC power plant, incorporating its proprietary Radial Outflow Turbine technology, which is particularly suited to variable geothermal fluid conditions. The closed-loop binary cycle converts heat to electricity without releasing gases to the atmosphere, ensuring zero emissions and a minimal surface footprint.
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