The share of low-carbon generation in Russia in 2023 was 37% – Kommersant

Renewable energy sources (RES) and nuclear power plants accounted for 37% of all electricity generation in Russia in 2023. Director of the Electric Power Industry Development Department of the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation Andrey Maksimov spoke about this at conferences “The environmental factor in the development of territories and the ESG agenda”, organized by the Kommersant Publishing House.

“When we say that we are striving for something and name certain shares, we must not forget that our hydroelectric power plants are clean renewable energy sources, and our nuclear power plants are low-carbon generation. Therefore, our balance is already quite good, clean, and many countries definitely need to strive for this,” said Mr. Maksimov.

He also spoke about the pace of development of renewable energy sources. Thus, by 2030, under capacity supply agreements (CSA), it is planned to commission solar, wind and small hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of 12 GW. “There was a slight shift in terms of the timing of the commissioning of facilities, which companies asked for after well-known events. Plus, of course, the reconfiguration of supply chains,” explained Andrey Maksimov. “We gave the opportunity to postpone the launch of facilities without penalties, the companies returned to them, and, in fact, during this time we agreed on indexation.”

According to the director of the Electric Power Industry Development Department, a government decree will be issued soon, which will contain two large standards. “The first is the indexation of price parameters for solar objects. At the same time, without additional burden on consumers, that is, redistribution, so to speak, over the years of this load for such objects: now we pay a little more, then they will cost less,” said Mr. Maksimov.

The second norm will concern the approval of the locations of renewable energy facilities. “We managed to do this quite painlessly, because a dialogue was built between investors who adequately understand that this needs to be done taking into account our country specifics in terms of rather sparse networks, low density and large scale of the country,” said Mr. Maksimov. — And the same applies to issues of redistribution: investors have the opportunity to show up in some regions, at some points, and then move them. We are also launching such a story for objects being moved starting from 2025.”