However, the pace of the energy transition could be faster. Vladimir Maksimov, head of Department of development of new business “Toshiba Rus”, explains why more is not possible to rely on the oil prices and how this will help the renewable energy sources (RES).
– When you pose the question “Can Russia break its oil addiction?”, I propose to restate that in the sentence “Russia will have to get off the oil needle”, because the transition to alternative facilities is a worldwide trend, and the cost of hydrocarbons will decline. According to the Agency for renewable energy (International Renewable Energy Agency, IRENA), in 2019 70 per cent of new capacity in the global energy sector fell to the share of renewable sources. That is, humanity is already making alternative power systems more than the traditional one. According to experts of the United Nations Programme for the environment, since 2010, renewable energy has invested more than any other China (758 billion), Europe (698 billion), the USA (356 billion) and Japan (202 billion dollars).
What will happen with Russia? The answer is simple and the solution complex: Russia, too, needs to change technologically. Of course, it is the task of a comprehensive macroeconomic policy. And in terms of modernization of the energy complex of Russia also it is necessary to go in the Wake of global trends. First of all it is necessary to reflect our oil and gas giants, as the largest investors of “green” energy – it is their colleagues as Shell, Total, Eni, BP and Equinor.
Yet in Russia, renewable energy is developing very slowly. According to IRENA, in 2019 in Russia, there were 55 thousand MW of installed alternative facilities (10 percent more than the year before). For comparison: China 759 thousand MW. But the lion’s share of our capacity is the Soviet hydroelectric power stations, whereas 90 percent of renewable energy investments now going into wind turbines and solar panels. For wind energy in our country have 102 MW of installed capacity, and solar – 1 thousand MW.
However, the pace of development of solar energy in Russia good. For 2019, the installed capacity increased almost twice. What you need to speed up the process? Of course, you should not completely abandon fossil sources of energy, which Russia is well provided for. Cost their use is still justified. However, in the Russian power system there are bottlenecks, where it is necessary to develop renewable energy. Electricity is only available for one third of the territory of the country is gasified with only half of the urban and slightly more than a third in rural areas.
It is in unsecured facilities, as well as in isolated and remote from the existing networks in parts of the country can develop alternative energy and especially microgeneration. First of all, we should popularize the idea of equipping individual households and small enterprises Autonomous renewable energy. Necessary, of course, and material support. Owners of housing or production, open to innovations, to help subsidized loans or, for example, free allocation of land under the objects microanalytic (solar in particular). Moreover, domestic solar power plants often generate energy in excess, and therefore, you can pass it on to the network, that is, the household is transformed from a consumer to vendor. Accordingly, at the level of individual settlements or industrial zones to create an Autonomous energy cluster.
Thus it is possible to create stand-alone grid in various parts of Russia. For them, the development of renewable energy sources will be economically feasible “podsazhivaniya” to “needle” of fossil sources, and will give impetus to the development of the industry in Russia. In fact we are talking about creating a new science-based industries with strong multiplier effect.
