Renewables are an increasingly important source of energy as countries seek to reduce their CO2 emissions and dependence on imported fossil fuels. Renewables are mainly used to generate electricity, though renewable technologies can also be used for heating in homes and buildings. Renewable biofuels Contact online >>
Renewables are an increasingly important source of energy as countries seek to reduce their CO2 emissions and dependence on imported fossil fuels. Renewables are mainly used to generate electricity, though renewable technologies can also be used for heating in homes and buildings. Renewable biofuels are also an emerging technology solution to decarbonise parts of the transport sector.
Note thatmodern renewablesexcludes traditional uses of biomass, such as burning collected wood, agricultural byproducts or dung for cooking or heating. This has serious negative consequences on health and the environment, including contributing to millions of deaths annually from air pollution, and is targeted for phase-out in international development and climate goals and in the IEA''s Net Zero scenario.
Biofuels, mostly made from plants, and waste products, such as household trash and industrial wastes, can be burned to generate electricity or heat. This can have environmental and climate advantages compared to burning fossil fuels, though the impact varies widely depending on the fuel source and how it is used. Traditional uses of biomass for heating and cooking, which remain a major source of energy in many developing countries, are targeted for phase-out in international climate goals and IEA scenarios.
Biofuels are used in all parts of the energy system: as replacement for oil-based fuels in transportation, to generate electricity, for heating buildings, or to provide heat for industrial processes.
Renewables such as solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric dams generate electricity without burning fuels that emit greenhouse gases and other pollutants. As the costs of solar panels and wind turbines have fallen dramatically in recent years, renewables now represent the cheapest source of new electricity generation in many parts of the world.
Renewables also have an important role in providing heat for buildings and industrial processes. To achieve decarbonisation and energy saving objectives, many countries are encouraging individual homes and buildings to shift from fossil fuel heating systems such as gas- or oil-fired boilers to systems like heat pumps which are much more efficient and can be powered with electricity from low-carbon sources. However, in areas that rely on heating from centralised heat plants or combined heat and power (CHP) plants, burning biofuels and waste products can provide a lower-carbon alternative to fossil fuels. Geothermal heating can also provide renewable, low-carbon heat but is only feasible in specific locations with the right kind of volcanic or tectonic activity.
Renewable heat sources have made fewer inroads in industry, as many important industrial processes such as steelmaking require higher heat than renewable fuels can achieve. New techniques and technologies will be needed to decarbonise these areas.
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In the rocky hills of southern Siberia, five hydropower plants operated by Russia''s EN+ Group churn out green electricity at one-sixth of the cost of conventional fuel, tapping the Angara river that flows out of Lake Baikal to power half a dozen aluminium smelters along its banks.
Already the world''s largest private hydropower company by capacity, EN+ is itching to ramp up output further. "We expect an increase in energy appetite of the region and we are prepared to satisfy it," says Maxim Sokov, EN+ chief executive, citing new industrial projects in the area, including gold and copper mines and power-hungry processing plants, that should increase power demand.
But stories like En+, which Mr Sokov says is finalising a modernisation programme to increase output and efficiency, are few and far between in Russia''s renewable energy industry, where the potential is great but the headwinds greater.
Russia''s tiny use of renewables, at 3.6 per cent of total energy consumption, is a black spot in a global surge in the use of green technology, which accounted for more than 18.3 per cent of the world''s energy supply in 2014, according to the International Energy Agency. Fellow Bric nations China and Brazil boast usage of more than 25 and 45 per cent respectively.
That gap is mainly due to Russia''s historical dependence on vast reserves of fossil fuels and the political clout of its state-run oil and gas industry. It has stymied efforts to spend the billions of dollars needed to invest in new technologies and build the infrastructure to connect renewable power producers to consumers in a country that accounts for one-eighth of the world''s land surface.
The problem has not gone unnoticed. The energy ministry has endorsed a report from the International Renewable Energy Association that estimates Russia has the potential for renewables to account for 11.3 per cent of energy consumption by 2030, more than twice the official forecast of 5 per cent.
That followed a speech by president Vladimir Putin in October, who described renewable energy as "definitely the main development path, the proper path" for mankind.
"There is an awakening here . . . they are beginning to understand," said Adnan Amin, Irena''s director-general, after meetings with Arkady Dvorkovich, deputy prime minister, and Alexander Novak, energy minister. "At the political level we have a lot of support."
Andrei Teksler, deputy energy minister, said: "Renewables are no longer referred to as alternative energy, they are traditional. We are not ignorant of the future," he added, citing the country''s enormous solar and wind power potential.
But addressing the shortfall will be harder than recognising it. The biggest challenge revolves around Russia''s huge dependence on the oil and gas industry, which generate about 15 per cent of GDP, 35 per cent of federal budget revenue and 60 per cent of exports.
Rosneft and Gazprom, the dominant oil and gas groups, are owned by the Russian state and are often seen as extended departments of government. In many western countries, declining fossil fuel output or increasing costs have prompted investments in renewables. In Russia, Rosneft and Gazprom are given government assistance and preferential treatment and both recently embarked on drilling projects in the country''s Arctic to ensure output is maintained.
"Given the current structure of the energy market here, there''s a very limited business case for renewables . . . How are you supposed to compete in a place where gas is virtually free?" says Mr Amin. "But what they are looking at is what it will evolve into . . . A need to remove [oil and gas] subsidies will come to Russia."
Further, a lack of a national grid hampers investments in large-scale renewable projects such as wind farms or new hydroelectric stations, which are cost-effective only if enough consumers are close enough.
The country''s largest power grid companies are also owned by the government. This stifles the potential for private investment in infrastructure technology, and often means new initiatives get bogged down in bureaucracy.
Industrial cities built during the Soviet period in Russia''s vast central and eastern regions typically still rely on coal-burning power plants, while villages and remote areas burn more than $2bn of diesel each year in generators.
Perhaps most importantly, Russia''s government, its coffers drained by a two-year recession, will struggle to find the $15bn that Irena says is required annually to build wind turbines, bioenergy sites and other infrastructure necessary to tap the country''s renewable potential.
Irena argues that the jobs created by the investment would partly repay the spending, while the potential of selling clean energy to Russia''s southern neighbours, including China and Mongolia, would also bring in revenue.
EN+ offers an encouraging prospect. The company''s hydro plants have a profit margin of 81 per cent: only China''s state-run monopoly produces more profitable hydroelectric power.
And in 2010, when an accident took a rival hydropower producer offline, EN+ had within a year increased its output by the equivalent of coal-fired plants burning more than 10m extra tonnes of coal. Mr Sokov says: "We do not see our growth being constrained by a lack of demand."
Russia’s transition to renewable energy could cost its economy roughly $1.2 trillion by 2050, a top Kremlin economic aide told the Kommersant business daily ahead of the landmark COP26 climate summit.
The 90-trillion-ruble price tag comes from a draft energy transition plan recently presented by the Economic Development Ministry.
“Our entire so-called intensive scenario in the energy transition strategy costs about 90 trillion rubles over 28 years,” First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov told Kommersant last Monday. “That means 3.2 trillion a year. This comes out to less than 3% of GDP.”
According to the plan, Russia would need to invest about $45 billion per year into renewables, nuclear and hydrogen energy in order to meet its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 79% by 2050.
Russia, the world’s fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has historically relied on its vast oil and gas reserves to bolster its economy.
The country’s leadership this year has started paying closer attention to climate change, passing the first greenhouse gas monitoring legislation in Russia’s history, calling for methane emissions cuts and acknowledging the global climate emergency.
President Vladimir Putin this month pledged that Russia would achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2060.
Nuclear power will play an important role in the country’s energy transition, Belousov said, arguing that “a whole range of countries don’t want to acknowledge nuclear generation as ‘clean’ because they don’t want to create strategic competition.”
International Energy Agency experts recently called for an urgent and complete halt on all new investment into coal, oil and natural gas exploration.
But because Russia plans to rely on natural gas as a transitional fuel, the country will need to expand its gas infrastructure, Belousov said, adding that this infrastructure could later be used to ship hydrogen fuel. For example, the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline could be adapted for hydrogen transit, he said.
Belousov''s comments come one the eve of the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, which is billed as one of the last chances remaining for world leaders to commit to the drastic emissions cuts needed to keep global warming below catastrophic levels.
Russia is one of the few leading economies not to have submitted a more ambitious climate strategy ahead of the November summit, as is required.
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