Renewables

Russia has large renewable potential for geothermal, hydro, solar and wind power. The current use of these resources is low, with hydropower being the only form of renewable electricity generation with any sizable production. In LIBEMOD each model country can exploit their hydropower, solar power and wind power potential. 

To estimate the hydropower potential in RU1, RU2 and RU3 the total for Russia from World Atlas and Industry Guide (2011) was used as a starting point. 

Black and Veatch[1] provide information about how the potential is distributed between the federal districts. Half the potential defined as “economic” has been used. This is in line with the approached used for the other model countries in order not to overestimate the hydropower potential (see chapter 3.2.2).

The inflow capacity in a hydrological normal year is defined as the amount of precipitation that reaches the catchment area and is available for hydropower production. For the three regions the inflow proxy was created using data from the System Operator of the Unified Energy System of Russia (SO UES). This is done by using the average net reservoir hydropower production per unit net reservoir hydropower generation capacity for the years 2009 - 2012, which is then multiplied by the net generation capacity of the base year 2009. The result is a region-specific estimate of inflow capacity in a hydrological normal year.

This has been supplemented with information about the pumped storage production and capacity from RusHydro (2010). It is assumed that there is no run-of-river capacity in the base year, however a share of the potential can be used for run-of-river development in future years. 

The solar power potential in the three regions is based on the same sources as for the rest of the model countries. Through the NASA database the best and worst locations for solar insolation were found, using the same specifics as outlined in chapter 3.2.3. After finding 0.5 % of the agricultural land in Russia it was allocated to the three regions through the use of a map of agricultural areas in the country[2].
 

Solar insolation kWh/m2/year (average insolation incident on an equator-pointed tilted surface)

Region (country)                            Best site (angle)                    Worst site (angle)

RU1                                                      1521 (28)                                917 (53)

RU2                                                      1359 (40)                              1014 (50)

RU3                                                      1531 (33)                                921 (54)
 

The wind power potential in each region was found using several sources. IEA (2003) has a map of wind resources in Russia, which was used to find the wind hours at the best site in each region. For RU1 and RU3 this was assessed to 3700 hours, which is the same as the best wind sites in Europe. For RU2 it was assessed to 3100 hours per year. Data for Norway adjusted by a country size factor was then used to find the parameters for each of the regions. 

 

Wind hours at best site in Russian regions

Region (country)             Best (load hours)            

RU1                                                      3700

RU2                                                      3100

RU3                                                      3100

 

[1] Russia country profile prepared by Black and Veatch (B&V) for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.  http://storage.globalcitizen.net/data/topic/knowledge/uploads/20111011161523705.pdf

[2] Source: http://www.sras.org/the_medvedev_economy

Publisert 15. apr. 2014 09:46 - Sist endret 15. aug. 2014 12:13