Russia is increasing its efforts to adopt renewable energy, in hopes of purchasing 1.9 gigawatts of energy from new sources in the near future. This is despite their long history of producing the world’s oil.
According to Adnan Amin, Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency, Russia believes they “can significantly contribute to the country’s economic objectives such as economic growth and employment.”
The country has previously set up strict regulations that have limited their ability to break into renewable energy; since 2012, Russian clean energy power plants were barred from installation unless they sourced an ever expanding percentage of their components from internal companies. As of 2017, that number was 40 percent.
For wind energy, this makes for a particularly difficult obstacle, as there are no Russian companies that currently manufacture wind turbines. This will soon change, however, as Rosatom Corporation, a state run nuclear energy producer, is updating its facilities to manufacture the necessary component. The Russian government is particularly interested in entering the field of wind over solar.
Even nations such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, both famed oil producers, are beginning to recognize the beneficial future of alternative energy. It is logically for these nations, as they use substantial amounts of their natural resources each year just to power their cities and towns. Saudi Arabia alone burns 1 million barrels of oil a day in this pursuit.
Russia is currently holding an auction to establish their energy suppliers of the future, and this will conclude on June 9. According to Victoria Cuming, head of policy analysis in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Bloomberg, “You bid to build a project of a certain capacity in a given year. This year it’s for 2018 to 2021.”
Even our world’s largest suppliers of oil recognize the power of the clean energy.
