Solar PV Development In Russia Accelerating

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Solar PV project development in Russia has been accelerating recently — with a number of large, notable projects announced recently.

Among those projects are a number to be developed in Crimea — no doubt being developed with the intention of making the peninsula more or less energy independent. This seems to be a worthwhile endeavor considering the political position that the region is in.

Image Credit: Russian Flag via Flickr CC

As it stands, Crimea can produce roughly 628.5 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity itself, and must import somewhere up to 2.5 billion kWh in order to meet current estimated demand. The authorities there are thusly looking to remedy this through the addition of roughly 134 million kWh of new solar capacity to the grid, and roughly 62 million kWh wind capacity, by the end of the year. With greater additions being planned for the next year, and after that as well. (Fun fact: Crimea had the largest solar PV power plant in the world for awhile.)

Elsewhere, in the southwestern Astrakhan region, a 250 KW solar project is currently being developed in Narimanov — with five more, for a total of 90 MW capacity, planned for development next year.

Also worth noting: in the Russian Far East, in Sakha, a 40 MW solar project is being developed that, when complete, will “completely power” the local community there.


 

In order to help some of these developments as well as others along, a new $142 million PV production facility is being constructed in Russia by the Chinese company Amur Sirius — which was recently awarded the contracts for 175 MW worth of the total 476 MW of state-supported solar capacity being developed for the years of 2015–2018.

Once completed, the new facility will peak at a production rate of around 330,000 solar modules a year — which is around 100 MW of capacity.

Amongst the other projects in the area, over 254 MW worth of projects are currently slated to be developed in Siberia over the next few years by Xevel. These projects extend in range from the coasts of the Arctic Ocean, to the border hills of Kazakhstan, to the barren lands bordering the countries of China and Mongolia.

“In the year of 2015 alone, we will launch a 30 MW PV facility in Altai, a 25 MW plant in Buryat, a 30 MW solar installation in the Omsk region and a 10 MW plant in the Zabaikalje region,” stated Xevel official Evgenij Kazakov.

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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