The Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia agreed on the volume of support for energy generation based on renewable energy sources (RES) for the period 2025-2035. It will amount to 306 billion rubles, which is a quarter less than the 400 billion planned earlier. These figures follow from a letter from Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak in charge of the industry, Vedomosti reports.
The first department confirmed that all existing disagreements have been removed, now the program must be approved by the government. If this happens, then Russia will actually refuse to imitate developed countries, including the EU and the US, which in 2020 decided to accelerate the transition to green energy.
The new conditions will allow to introduce in the country only 4.6 gigawatts of “green” generation instead of 6.2 gigawatts. However, back in October, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov called for a reduction in support to 200 billion.
The extension of the current program, which runs from 2014 to 2024, was opposed by the Energy Consumers Community. The organization promotes the interests of enterprises in need of cheap energy. Deputy Director of the Association Valeriy Dzyubenko pointed out that by the end of the 2020s, “green” energy will be equal in cost to conventional energy, so it will be able to compete on market conditions. So, he thinks, there is no need to help RES.
In turn, the head of the Association for the Development of Renewable Energy Alexei Zhikharev recalled that until 2019 they were going to allocate 600 billion rubles for the program. But instead, plans were cut by half, and market participants were imposed with additional requirements, which forced some investors to refuse to work in Russia.
The use of renewable energy sources is one of the main ways to reduce emissions. Their construction in Russia, according to Anatoly Chubais, the president’s special envoy for relations with international organizations to achieve sustainable development goals, would help move away from the promising carbon set that the EU intends to introduce.
The official called the unwillingness of the authorities to introduce a carbon tax in Russia “a gross mistake”. Because of this, he stressed, Russian companies will have to pay to the European budget.