Russia Expects Investment In Country’s Solar Industry To Reach $4.2 Billion By 2020

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State and private investment into Russia’s solar industry will climb to somewhere around RUB 150 billion (US$ 4.2 billion) by the year 2020, according to the country’s Ministry of Energy.

The state-owned investment giant Rusnano and the Renova Group conglomeration are expected to play a significant role in the industry, according to industry analysts.

The corporate affairs director at Hevel Solar — one of the biggest producers of solar modules in Russia — Anton Usachev predicts that “solar power plants will be established in the southern and southwestern Russian regions of Altai, Bashkortostan, Orenburg, Samara and Omsk in the next six years,” as quoted by PV Magazine.

According to Usachev, around 1.5 GW of solar power plants will be built in Russia by the year 2020.

“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. 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.”

Russia’s renewable energy industry (not counting hydro) has been growing at only very slow rates until very recently — investment hasn’t been significant, less than $1 billion a year. But that has started to change recently, as Russia’s quite successful first-ever renewable energy auction recently made clear.

That said, it’s important to note that the solar energy picture in Russia is quite complex. While it’s an easy thing to take a respected analyst at her or his word, there are a number of wildcards with regard to solar energy development within the eastern powerhouse. What will actually happen remains to be seen.

Keep up with all the hottest solar power news here on CleanTechnica, or even subscribe to our free solar power newsletter.

Image Credit: Russian Flag via Flickr CC


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James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

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