ST.PETERSBURG, June 18. /TASS/ Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselberg's project to invest into solar energy may prove to be very timely and profitable, according to energy expert and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2007) Rodney John Allam, who was one of the panelists at SPIEF Global Energy conference.
"Solar power has a lot of attractions, and I think what attracts them [businessmen] also is the fact that they can get subsidies from the governments to start with," - Allam said.
This, in turn, "can make quite a good profit" for the first investors in the business, he said.
"On the other hand, these people are the ones who push technology forward and push down the cost, so it's all a question of tolerating the high prices to start with the hope they will start going down in the future,"- he said.
According to Allam,"the people who get in first make the most money", while promoting rapid development and incentivizing to innovate.
"So it's all for the greater good", the expert said.
Victor Vekselberg's project envisages setting up seven solar plants in Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan by 2018.
Investments into the project will amount to 6 bln rubles ($106.7 mln).
The large-scale solar power plants construction project with the total generation capacity of 59 MW is implemented by Hevel, the joint venture of Russia’s Renova and Rosnano companies, which is acting as the investor and the prime construction contractor.
Rodney John Allam is a British engineer and a member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers. In 2013 he received Global Energy Prize award for the development of new processes and equipment for production of gases and cryogenic liquids, as well as for the development and implementation of technology for production of electricity in power systems.