ST. PETERSBURG, December 26. /TASS/. Russian specialists will implement in the Murmansk Region a project, where wind generators will produce heat energy from the Arctic winds. Such technologies may become an alternative to traditional heating, Eduard Lisitsky, Deputy Managing Director at TGC-1 (electricity generating company), said at the Arctic: Present and Future international forum.
"We have a new innovative project - to build a heat generating wind plant in the Arctic. <...> What is the project's idea? To build wind turbines that will generate not electricity, but thermal energy. To use the energy of strong Arctic winds and process it immediately into heat," Lisitsky said.
The project's idea was developed in partnership with Krasnoyarsk's Micron machine building design bureau, he told TASS. The key objective is to have all necessary components produced in Russia, due to the current problems with import. The implementation will begin after the production base is ready.
The coastal Teriberka settlement in the Murmansk Region's north has been chosen as a potential location, he continued. After talks with the local administration, the project will be implemented as a concession. Thermal generators for wind farms will cost less than regular electricity generators. This symbolic project will cut the environmental burden on the Murmansk Region's nature and at the same time will favor development of a separate district in the region.
Kola power system
The Murmansk Region combines a wide range of alternative energy technologies in the Arctic.
"The Kola power system is unique because it is absolutely green. Right, we have two thermal power plants, but in terms of energy production structure, it is difficult to find another region of the kind in the Arctic, which uses a similar combination of nuclear generation, hydrogenation and wind generation. I think we have a great future in terms of renewable energy development," said Yevgeny Nikora, Deputy Speaker of the Murmansk Regional Duma.
More than half of electricity in the region is generated by nuclear power plants, slightly less than a half - by numerous cascades of northern hydroelectric power plants (HPP), and only about 2% - by traditional thermal power plants. The Kola wind farm will generate additional clean electricity from early next year (2023).
The upgrade of the existing HPP network is an important component in further development of the green energy system, he continued. The region has upgraded the Iovskaya HPP, and by 2024 will upgrade Verkhne-Tulomskaya HPP. Another promising direction is to build new low-capacity hydroelectric power plants where the northern rivers' potential has not been used enough.
Innovative energy for Arctic
Besides projects in wind and water energy, the forum participants presented other environment-friendly technologies for electric generation. They paid special attention to one of the most traditional types of alternative energy - nuclear energy.
Eurosolar Russia's COB Georgy Kekelidze noted that "at the moment there is a wide option to combine nuclear and other renewable energy at sea and on land to provide electricity to hard-to-reach Arctic regions."
Low-power nuclear power plants are the most promising technologies, the forum participants stressed. Sergey Liventsev, Atomflot's Deputy General Director for Construction, mentioned as an example the low-power offshore nuclear power plants that provide energy for mining projects in the Arctic coastal regions. A station of the kind, Akademik Lomonosov, has been operating in the port of Pevek on the Chukchi Peninsula.
Within the current decade, another four floating nuclear power units will be made for development of the Baim copper and gold deposit in the Chukotka Autonomous Region. Presently, projects of floating low-power nuclear power plants are being implemented only for supplies to industrial facilities, he said, stressing these technologies can be easily used for supplies to settlements in the Arctic.
"As yet, we are not talking about energy supplies to cities, but such opportunities exist. They could be used for cities and even for villages - those are low-power nuclear power plants. Unlike coal or diesel, they do not require ongoing deliveries - just install and it works," Atomflot's representative said.
Rusatom Overseas' Vice President Oleg Sirazetdinov agreed that small nuclear power plants would soon proceed from sea to land. The first project of the kind is being implemented in Yakutia's Ust-Yansky District. This experience could be used to build many small nuclear power plants, he added.
"Low-power nuclear projects are very promising both in Russia and in the world," he said.
About forum
The 12th international forum Arctic: Present and Future took place in St. Petersburg on December 8 and 9. In 2022, Russia marks the 90th anniversary of the Northern Sea Route, the 85th anniversary of the world's first drifting scientific station, North Pole-1, and the 15th anniversary of the high-latitude Arctic deep-water expedition (2007). Special activities on the forum's agenda were devoted to these events. The forum's organizer was the Association of Polar Explorers, supported by the Federation Council, the State Duma, the Ministry for Development of the Far East and Arctic, the Foreign Ministry and other authorities. Nornickel was the event's general partner. TASS was the general information partner.