Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Russia set to draw up national RES map

While Russia lags far behind most developed Western countries when it comes to renewable energy, the government is now creating a single RES development map to better gauge the country's potential.
Along with a new RES map, Russia is also establishing a national renewable energy association.
Russia is aiming to draw up a single RES development map that could help to better estimate the potential of the country’s green energy resources.
"Unfortunately, until now we have not had a single detailed map," said Jegor Grinkevich, deputy director of the Energy Development Department at the Russian Ministry of Energy.
"The necessity of this kind of estimation has become especially urgent after the Russian government passed a package of legislative acts at the end of May aimed at bolstering renewables in the country," he added.
The "map ought to be one of the priorities of the government as it will allow us to assess the energy potential and what kind of measures have yet to be passed in boosting the generation," Grinkevich said.
Speaking to pv magazine, Anton Usachiov, director of Russia's Solar Power Association (RSPA), said, "It would be more accurate to say that until now every renewable energy sector had such kind of map of its own. An example is the solar power map that we’ve had and have been updating for quite a while."
A number of experts from governmental and scientific organizations as well as independent specialists are in charge of monitoring and assessing Russia's renewable energy potential, the RSPA director said.
Russia is aiming to increase its green energy generation up to 6 GW by 2020, which would make up 2.5% of the country’s total power production, putting it significantly behind the most developed Western countries.
In addition to the single RES map, Russia has also decided to establish a national renewable energy association.
"It would be accurate to say that Russia's alternative energy sector is still in the initial stage of development," Usachiov noted. "Until now we had separate associations representing each sector of RES. Just quite recently the sectors have agreed on establishing an association that could represent the interests of all the sectors."
He said the input of solar today is "less than one percent" in RES generation. "Currently we have no more than 3 MW of solar capacity in the country," Usachiov said.
Russia passed its Renewable Energy Source Development Measures package at the end of May, but the national renewables sector has yet to experience its impact.

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