Renewable energy in Russia
The rapid expansion of hydroelectric power in the Soviet Union began in 1930, when the total installed capacity equaled 600 MWh.
[2] However, in 1986, the Soviet government announced new energy goals, which included further hydroelectric plant construction as well as the start of small-scale solar and wind use for electricity production.
In late 2009, Dmitry Medvedev made an ambitious declaration, expressing his intent to reduce Russia's energy consumption by 40% by the year 2020.
These obstacles included insufficient investments, economic instability, limited public demand, and the presence of low tariffs on heat and electricity.
[8] Additionally, the prevalence of subsidies for natural gas posed another significant challenge to the development of renewable energy in the country.
[9] Some of Russia's hydroelectric power plants are outdated and are in need of additional investment, as shown by the 2009 accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP.
According to the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), renewables, excluding large hydropower projects with over 25 MW of installed capacity, constituted 0.19% of the entire electricity generation in 2015.
[13] To provide a global perspective, the proportion of hydropower in the worldwide electricity generation mix closely mirrored that of Russia at approximately 16.4%.
[1][15][16] Russia's renewable sector offers opportunities for scaling up resource development, including high export potential, domestic market growth, energy deficit mitigation, hydrogen production, supportive policies, available land, and technological advancement.
[15] However, it continues to face significant challenges, such as an uneven playing field, local content requirements, government neglect of clean technologies, regulatory uncertainties, high project costs, harsh environmental conditions, and unfavorable institutional design.
[23] Source: NREL[24] Before 2016 solar energy in Russia was virtually nonexistent, despite its large potential in the country.
[25] In 2007 it was estimated that Russia had a total theoretical potential of 2,213 TWh/yr for solar energy, with an economically feasible amount of 101 TWh.
[28] Russia and India are currently discussing the possibility of a joint venture to produce silicon wafers for the creation of photovoltaic cells.
[19] Most of this potential is found in the southern steppes and the seacoasts of Russia, although in many of these areas the population density is less than 1 person per square km.
This low population density means that there is little existing electricity infrastructure currently in place, which hinders development of these resources.
[citation needed] The first batch of wind towers and nacelles were delivered in June 2020 and the facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2020.
Russia is one of the largest grain producers, has a well-developed ethyl alcohol industry and has increasing rapeseed (often used to create biodiesel) production rates.
Deputy Transportation Minister Valery Okulov stated that Russian companies are currently developing helicopters that run on biofuel.
[42] The country's Biotechnology Corporation estimates that Russia is capable of exporting 40 million tons of biofuel annually.
However, due to Russia's vast forest and peat reserves,[nb 1] it has a total biomass technical potential of 431 TWh/year, of which 285 TWh/year is economically feasible.
[46][47] Most of this potential is found in northwestern Russia, which has a developed pulp and paper industry that can provide wood-based waste to use as biomass energy.
