MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. Mixed power generation, involving mini hydropower plants, should be used for Arctic facilities in mining and tourism, Associate Professor at the Public Administration and Public Policy Department of the Institute of Social Sciences of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (RANEPA), and Deputy Director of the Center for Development of the Arctic (PORA) Alexander Vorotnikov, told TASS.
Many Arctic settlements, including those near rivers in hard-to-reach areas, are using diesel generators. For example, placer deposits of precious metals are often located along rivers. The riverbeds have normally structures, suitable for construction of mini hydropower plants.
"Mixed generation involving mini hydropower plants may be used to supply electricity to many facilities: to mining enterprises, or in the extraction and processing of solid minerals, or in the tourism sector, since many tourism infrastructures are on or near reservoirs, and, when using "green" energy, they will become more attractive," the expert said.
Mini hydropower plants also could be used for supplies to the facilities of the low-numbered indigenous peoples, he continued, stressing the use of diesel generators affects greatly the Arctic ecology, increases the carbon footprint and hinders the trend for carbon neutrality.
"Mixed generation means the energy of sun (solar power plants) and wind (wind parks), as well as storage facilities. Such projects <...> are widely used in Yakutia. Unfortunately, practically no mini hydropower plants are in the Russian Arctic, although such facilities have proven to be effective in making "clean" energy, and the modern technologies offer using them for hybrid generation along with the wind and solar energy. <...> Mini hydropower plants do not destruct the nature and are "green," he added.
The environmental direction is a key priority of the Arctic Council, presently chaired by the Russian Federation. Earlier, Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunov stressed the Arctic is a region suffering the biggest burden from the climate change.