14 DAY TRIAL // Russia might have its hands full playing a leading role in the Ukraine odyssey these days, but this does not mean it has forgotten that, given the dire need to limit climate change and global warming, every country in its right mind must do its best to improve on its ecological footprint.
Long story short, news from this part of the world says that, according to a recent report authored by specialists working with Russia's Ministry of Energy, the country is to add a whole lot of solar capacity in the years to come.
Specifically, Russia's Ministry of Energy estimates that, in light of recent trends, the country's investments in technologies allowing it to harvest this clean energy source will reach an impressive $4.2 billion (€3 billion) by the year 2020.
As detailed by Clean Technica, Russia's spending this much money on making the most of solar power in the near future will be the result of both state and private investments in the clean energy industry.
In a recent interview with the press, Anton Usachev with Hevel Solar, i.e. the biggest producer of solar modules now operating in Russia, explains that, all things considered, the country will probably end up adding 1.5 GW worth of solar capacity by the end of the decade.
Interestingly enough, Anton Usachev has reasons to believe that the distribution in this newly acquired solar capacity in Russia will not exactly be what some would call uniform. On the contrary, some regions will receive preferential treatment when it comes to investments in this renewable.
Provided that the Corporate Affairs Director at Hevel Solar is right, these regions will be as follows: Altai, Bashkortostan, Orenburg, Samara, and Omsk, the same source tells us.
Not at all surprisingly given its newly discovered interest in clean energy, it appears that Russia will become home not only to quite a lot of new solar power systems in the following few years, but also to several photovoltaic module manufacturing facilities.
“Hevel, a joint venture between state-owned tech giant Rusnano and Russian conglomerate Renova, also has plans to establish PV module manufacturing plants in the country, the largest of which is scheduled for commissioning in June in Chuvashia with an expected capacity of more than 100 MW per year,” Anton Usachev explains.
“Avelar Energy Group – also part of Renova, and France’s Schneider Electric are also looking at launching an inverter production facility in Russia in the next several years,” the Hevel Solar Corporate Affairs Director adds.