Development of renewable energy sources (RES) in Russia was actively discussed during the panel discussions “Developing RES in Russia: Growth and Technology Export” and “Growth is Inevitable: New RES Projects in the Regions” at the Russian Power Industry Week
The participants in the expert dialogs were Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Adnan Amin, First Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Alexey Teksler, CEO of UK ROSNANO LLC Anatoly Chubais, General Director of Hevel LLC Igor Shakhrai, Executive Vice President, the Head of Fortum Corporation’s Russia division Alexander Chuvayev, representatives of regional authorities, the Director General of JSC NovaWind (the subsidiary of Rosatom responsible for new energy companies) Alexander Korchagin and Deputy General Director for development and international business of JSC NovaWind Emin Askerov.
Today it can be said with confidence that at the initiative of Rosatom which won a contract in 2016 for building wind farms with a total power of 610 MW, a competitive market for wind power and a pool of strong stakeholders has appeared in Russia.
Alexey Teksler also noted that the latest competitive selection process for wind power projects showed significant expansion as well as a decrease in capital expenditure for wind farm construction by more than thirty per cent. In his opinion, a new market with high levels of competition has appeared in Russia over a three-year period. Cooperation between Russian and foreign companies in localizing the manufacture of wind turbines will allow development of proprietary designs. He noted that renewable energy sources will soon be able to compete with other power generation types and will become a part of the global power industry of the future.
Rosatom, which is set to build wind farms with a total power of 970 MW by the end of 2022, has the most ambitious program for the localization of the construction of wind turbines in Russia and has already made decisions concerning production cooperation. The partnership with Lagerwey will enable Rosatom to access the international market with an established industrial stakeholder ready to promote not only existing competitive products, but also promising solutions.
In his presentation, Anatoly Chubais noted that the RES power take-off mechanism has proved its performance and has facilitated the competitive development of the new industry. He believes that the RES program in Russia is a vast investment project which will attract up to 1 billion RUR with guaranteed profitability. The potential of RES technology development is far better than that of the traditional power industry. In addition, Russia is aiming for to export RES projects.
The discussion participants also discussed the difficulties which have been encountered by the pioneers of the wind power market in Russia. As Alexander Korchagin noted, “There are still many blank spots in the statutory regulation of wind power, in land use. We will eliminate them using our roadmap. We understand that localization is a challenge and we are striving to meet it. The current model is technology transfer, and Rosatom as an energy company is essentially an investment fund for implementing manufacturing projects. Today we are already working towards exporting and being able to localize for external markets”. The potential Rosatom’s level of localization may be over 70%. As a result of the localization of wind turbine manufacture, the product will be not only energy, but also the Russian-manufactured wind turbine itself. This will be a competitive product that will be used by Rosatom to access the world market.
For the product to be actually competitive in terms of price and quality, Russia must test these technologies on its territory.
During the panel discussion “Growth is Inevitable: New RES Projects in the Regions”, the participants discussed the prospects, problems and challenges encountered by stakeholders in the Russian market for renewable energy sources in existing and planned project implementation regions. The Deputy Governor of the Murmansk Region Yevgeniy Nikora noted that the Murmansk Region is one of the most successful in using wind power systems and that its plans for developing RES are fairly ambitious.
The First Deputy Minister for Housing and Energy of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic Nikolai Dudyrev expressed confidence in the support of the companies which are ready to introduce a wind power plant capable of operating in low temperature conditions. This is a unique technological challenge for the stakeholders of the new industry.
The priority region for roll out of the Rosatom projects is the Southern Federal District. The first 150 MW WPS will be built on the territory of two municipal districts (Shovgenovsky and Giaginsky) of the Republic of Adygeya. Currently a digital model of the site is being prepared and a plan for an optimal WPP ground location is being developed with consideration for maximum electric power production and reduction of expenditures for construction of infrastructure facilities. In total, 60 WPPs are planned for deployment. Their total power will be 150 MW. Some additional sites are being considered for further WPSs in the south of Russia in the Krasnodar region. The project road map is being developed in cooperation with the administration of the Krasnodar region. Currently, it is planned to carry out the necessary wind measurements on potential sites along the Black Sea coastline of the Krasnodar region and in several other regions in the south of Russia. Wind farm construction is planned for 2019-2022.
The Deputy Director General for development and international business of JSC NovaWind, Emin Askerov noted that during implementation of large-scale programs in wind power, business requires the support of regional authorities on a range of issues: “We need the support of regional authorities in solving a range of problems such as inclusion of WPSs into the plans and programs for the future development of the power industry in subjects of the Russian Federation; inclusion of WPSs in documents for land-use planning and town-planning zoning; preparation and harmonization of documentation for site planning; support in the registration of legal rights for land for construction and operation of WPSs; and also support in obtaining permission documents for construction of WPSs.”
An especially important factor is support for relationships with regional grid companies in the area of technological connections.
There are plans to decommission 9 GW of power within 10 years. Several heat generating companies whose thermal power stations (TPSs) incur losses in the electric power market today but cannot be closed due to power system reliability requirements are considering projects for replacement of their TPSs with WPSs.
“There is no point in limiting wind power generation volume to 3 GW. The potential for the industry is large. It is important to develop measures for supporting the renewable energy industry not just to 2024, but even longer. It is important that we be supported in solving the issue of “technologically neutral” bid requests for construction of power facilities for replacement of aging facilities. The renewable energy industry must be able to compete with the traditional one. The key indicator for selecting a facility must be its economic efficiency. It is important to note that RES facilities have significantly lower operating costs than traditional generation facilities,” Askerov said during the discussion.
“Programs for creating wind farms and solar power plants and the program for localizing the manufacture of component parts must not be considered the only growth point, including that for regions in which small high-tech businesses related to the renewable energy industry may develop. This is already the case in Germany, for example. WPSs and SPSs are essentially sites for testing new technologies in the power industry,” Askerov said.
The discussions showed that a competitive wind-driven power industry has actually been created and its key stakeholders have been identified; they are actively implementing their projects. Active partnerships with regional state authorities are underway for implementation of the announced projects.