Over most of Russia, wind speeds are greater in the daytime than at night, although this variation is much less pronounced in the winter. The annual variation in mean wind speed (i.e. the difference between the maximum and minimum mean daily speeds) is insignificant for most parts of Russia.
Several attempts have been made to estimate the exact potential of wind energy in Russia, beginning with the Wind Atlas published in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. More recently, have estimated gross wind potential at 26,000 million tons of coal equivalent, technical potential at 2,000 mtce, and economic potential at 10 mtce. According to analysis, about 30 percent of the economic potential of wind development is concentrated in the Far East, about 16 percent in West Siberia and another 16 percent in East Siberia.
Solar Energy
In spite of general northern geographic location, Russia possesses considerable solar resources. Annually the solar radiation energy incident on its territory is equivalent to 18.7×109 GWh that exceeds significantly the power potential of any other available energy resources. Some areas of Russia receive more than 300 sunny days per year, and the cold temperatures also improve the efficiency of solar cells. Currently, Russia has no utility-scale solar power plants planned or in operation.
The technical potential of solar energy was estimated as 18.7×106 GWh, with an economic potential around 1×105 GWh per year in the national report “Role of renewable energy sources in energy strategy of Russia”. The technical potential is equal to the solar energy incident into 0.1 percent of territory of the country, while the economic potential constitutes about 0.5 percent of technical potential.
Direct solar radiation incident on surface normal to sunlight beams, MJ/m2
A map displaying the direct normal insolation and global horizontal irradiance is below. As shown, the country does not have a significant amount of solar resource.
Russia Solar Direct Normal Insolation (Source: NASA)
Russia Solar Global Horizontal Irradiance (Source: NASA)
Russia Solar Global Horizontal Irradiance (Source: NASA)
Geothermal Energy
Russia possesses vast geothermal resources, and over 3,000 wells have been drilled to take advantage. At present the geothermal energy is used in Russian Federation both for heat supply and electricity production. Their first two geothermal power plants were operating in 1966, and they were the first to use the single-flash binary cycle design.
In Russia, almost half of energy use goes toward heating. Direct use of geothermal can offer significant resource to provide this energy, potentially up to 30% (IGA, 2005), and this has been the predominant use of geothermal energy in Russia. Direct utilization of thermal water with temperature 30–100 °C for heating and hot water supply of buildings, for agricultural needs (heating of green houses and cattle raising farms), for fish breeding, in local industry, in balneology and for swimming pools takes place mainly at the Northern Caucasia (Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Republic Dagestan, Adygei Region, Karachai-Cherkessia) and at Far East (peninsula Kamchatka, Kuriles). Locally the thermal water is also used in the separate settlements of Western Siberia, near Lake Baikal, in Magadan and Chukot regions and at Sakhalin. Even within Lake Baikal, geothermal heat has been noticed to be breaking through thick ice in two specific locations, despite the depth of the lake. At Kamchatka there are the experimental plants for using thermal water in combination with heat pumps.
Use of geothermal to produce electrical power in Russia is also significant, and has been growing continuously. There are currently somewhere between 92-129 MW of geothermal power plants operating, and about 55 MW of planned additional capacity (UDI, June 2009 and EBRD Project database).
According to the Institute of Volcanology, Far East branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, the geothermal resources near Kamchatka are good enough to fully supply it with electric power and heat for more than 100 years. Besides the high temperature Mutnovskoe field with capacity of 300 MW(e) located in the south of Kamchatka, there are known rich geothermal resources at Koshelevskoe, Bolshe Bannoe and Kireunskoe (in the north) fields. In total these fields may produce about 2,000 MW(e).
The heat potential of Kamchatka’s geothermal waters is estimated at 5,000 MW(therm). Also at Chukotka there are significant geothermal resources, part of which has been already discovered and may be effectively used for supplying power to nearby cities and settlements. The Kuril Islands are rich in geothermal resources as well. They can produce enough electric and thermal power to supply the region for 100-200 years.
The Iturup island features newly discovered biphase heat-transfer fluid resources the capacity of which 30 MWe is enough to meet the energy needs of the whole island. The southern island Kunashir has geothermal heat reserves that are being used for electric power and heat supply of Yzhno-Kurilsk. The subsoil of the northern island Paramushir is underexplored, yet is known to contain good resources of geothermal water of 70-95°C. The Northern Caucasus has well studied geothermal resources with temperatures ranging from 70 to 180°C °C at depths of 300 to 5000 m. Local geothermal waters are used for heat and hot water supply for a long time already.
Geothermal Map of Russia
Hydropower
The total hydropower technical potential in Russia is estimated to be about 2,400 billion kWh per year, the majority of which is based on medium and large rivers. The economic potential for this resource is about 850 billion kWh per year. There is also significant hydro potential on the smaller rivers in Russia.
Most of the potential hydropower resources are located in Central and Eastern Siberia and in the Far East. The North Caucasus and the western part of the Urals also have good hydropower potential. The Far East and Eastern Siberia combined account for more than 80 percent of hydropower potential, and could produce about 450-600 billion kWh per year.
Tidal & Wave Energy
Russia has an interest in ocean energy, both from renewable sources as well as oil and gas located under the ocean floor. It is involved in detailed marine surveying and mapping.
Most of Russia’s tidal power is dissipated in the Arctic regions, in particular the White Sea is considered to have a great amount of potential. In the Mezen Bay, the difference between low tide and high tide is greater than 20 feet.
Russia had its first tidal power plant, the Kislogubskaya, in 1968 in Kislaya Bay (Barents Sea), with a capacity of about 400 kW. This well-known tidal plants is still one of the few in the world, although that is rapidly changing. The plant has operated successfully despite extreme environmental conditions, being built in Arctic ocean water. In 2006, a new construction on a new generator for the station was completed.
In 2007, a 1.5 MW tidal power plant by Gidro OGK began operation as a pilot project in the same bay. If successful, the company plans on replacing it with a 10 GW of generating capacity, and potentially building several more GW in other Russian bays. Other companies have discussed building tidal power as well. RusHydro, Russia’s leading hydropower developer, completed a feasibility study for a plant in 2009 and plans to construct a pilot plant which will take three years and may lead to additional development. Sevmash is planning on completing the construction of another plant, the Kolskaya plant, in the Dolgaya bayplant in 2010.
In Russia’s “Maritime Doctrine of the Russian Federation 2020”, Russia lists its long term goals as including “development of technology generation of electric energy from tidal phenomena, coastal winds and wind-driven waves, the water temperature gradient, thermal energy and flow, as well as thermal caloric biomass of algae.
