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Saami village in Murmansk Region to use renewable energy sources

The village residents currently receive electricity for only 18 hours a day

TASS, May 16. /TASS/. Authorities of the Murmansk Region will use renewable energy sources for 24-hour electricity supplies to a Saami village, the region’s Deputy Governor Evgeny Nikora told the Wind Energy 2018 forum in Ulyanovsk.

The village is the Saami cultural center, where 430 people live in 170 households, he said. The only communication with the village is the regular helicopter flights once a week. The village residents receive electricity for only 18 hours a day.

"It is a rather big settlement, where electricity is produced by a diesel power station with the peak capacity of 450 kilowatts <…> We would like to substitute that power station with a hybrid station. <…> There is a potential of using solar energy in summer, plus we may use the wind," he said, adding the authorities have discussed with potential investors an acceptable financial model.

The Saami, as they prefer calling themselves, or the Lopars, are the North’s low-numbered indigenous group of about 31,000 people. In Russia, they live mostly on the Kola Peninsula. Russia’s most Saami live in the Murmansk Region - 1,600.

The first international investment forum Wind Energy 2018 is in Ulyanovsk on May 16-17.