RENEWABLE ENERGY PROSPECTS IN NORTH-WEST RUSSIA AS AN INSTUMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE WITHSTANDING

Abstract

This article concludes by giving separate consideration to the energy security / ecological security implications that may arise in pursuit of new energy policies. This article investigates the benefits, challenge, and opportunity of introducing renewable energy into the North-West region of Russia. Renewable energy is regarded globally as the primary means to withstand climate change. Objective evidence on the effects of climate change - and also - observations from different groups of society (such as Scientists, Governmental and Non Governmental Organisations, Ecological Societies, Businessmen, Farmers, Reindeer Herders, Home Owners) are considered. Leading scientists from the Kola Science Center, provide analysis on the potential for renewable energy (from wind, hydro, tidal, solar, biomass, and low potential thermal energy) to contribute to the current energy balance. Cooperation between scientists, Ecologists, Governmental State Economical Authorities, and Businesses was initiated by Non-Governmental Organizations within the Murmansk region in 2006. The governor has committed to a research program that will, by 2020, see 20% of the current energy balance being sourced from wind energy. This declaration has seen the formation of the Regional Program “Development of non-conventional and renewable sources of energy in Murmansk region for 2009-2015” for the further exploration of Renewable Energy opportunities in North West Russia.

Climate change

The evidence of climate change cannot be ignored and is offered by different groups of society not only scientists such as climatologists, biologists and others dealing with earth sciences, but ordinary people as well, such as Reindeer herders and businessmen whose livelihoods depend on the climate and weather(http://www.gov-murman.ru/). Winters have become warmer and periods of snow cover shorter. Warmer summers with changing temperatures increase the size of insect populations and have a detrimental effect of the ability for reindeer to eat healthily and gain weight. Colder summers produce a poor harvest with a detrimental effect for people and for animals. Short winters carry the greatest impact. Rivers freeze late and thaw early, limiting the successful migration of reindeer and herders. Winter ice roads can only be used safely for shorter periods, enforcing a greater reliance on helicopters. Householders report their dwellings overheat during winter and they need electrical heaters to keep them warm during the summer, while dark gloomy winters without snow cover and snowy wet summers increase levels of depression within the population. Moreover, biologists predict climate change will threaten the biodiversity and migration of species. It can be concluded that climate change does introduce economic challenge and does threaten ecological balance.

It is still arguable whether human activity is the main contributing factor to climate change. Ecologists from NGOs supported by foreign funding promote the construction of renewable energy sites as a possible way to withstand climate change. NGOs work with representatives across many different levels (authorities, mass media, education). Renewable energy advantages such as “availability”, “stability”, “reliability”, “profitability” and a pollution-free environment will help to conserve fossil fuel for generations to come and will sustain increased energy demand due to rapid industry development. Scientists from the Kola Science Centre proved that wind energy could provide “energy well being” in the region by delivering stable and reliable energy supplies to the most remote districts of the region and protect customers from service disconnections (Dmitriev G., Minin V., 2005). Moreover the successful introduction of wind energy would be able to bring about the decommissioning of the older nuclear capacity. Because of these findings, renewable energy will be a profitable sector of regional economy and will create new workplaces and income.

The principle Russian paper governing state energy policy (Russia’s Energy Strategy, 2001) indicates the importance of inclusion of non-conventional renewable energy sources into the national economy. These can best be exploited in areas which are inherently rich in such resources, but are lacking in traditional fuels. (Bezrukikh P. Borisov V., 2002). The energy economy of the Murmansk region avails itself of hydropower resources on the one hand, while on the other, is heavily dependent on nuclear fuel, coal, oil products and liquefied gas imported from afar. The region does have a wide range of renewable energy sources, but there are difficulties for development of these sources. Some of these difficulties relate to life in sub-arctic conditions and other lie generally with energy policy.

There is disagreement of policy within Russian corporate and authority bodies with regard to climate change and ways of obtaining energy or planning human activity. There is evidence of a determined “anti renewable energy policy” and support for ongoing dependence on nuclear energy and fossil fuel. This self-interest can give rise to the potential for corruption. It is evident that North-West of Russia has a huge potential for renewable energy and its development is not only economically profitable, but would also be an exemplar for the political image of this country. Fortunately there is authoritative evidence demonstrating cooperation between ecologists, scientists, governmental and state economical authorities, and business in the Murmansk region today (Tuinova, S., 2008).

The aim of this article is to put forward the prospects for renewable energy in North-West Russia’s region from the point of view of adaptation and withstanding to climate change. The main content of the text is to show how the Region’s energy policy and economy could be developed through non-conventional renewable energy sources is covered from three parts. The first part of this paper considers the current and retrospective status of the energy sector to the region’s economy. The second part of this paper evaluates the potential for non-conventional renewable energy sources within the region and looks at different types of non-conventional renewable energy sources (wind, small rivers, tides, solar, biomass, and low potential thermal energy) and assesses their prospective role in the region’s economy. The third part of this paper provides some conclusions and recommendations for the development of non-conventional renewable energy sources principle instruments to withstand climate change. (The spelling of geographical locations and names of energy power stations mentioned here correspond to the transliteration of their spelling in original Russian spelling). The final part of this paper considers the implications of energy security as part of ecological security within North West Russia.

Current and retrospective state of energy in Murmansk region

The Murmansk region is the furthest situated region in the North-West of Russia. When the region first started to develop its energy infrastructure in the 1930s, huge efforts were directed towards overcoming the difficulties of living in sub-arctic conditions with such a severe climate. When the subject of global climate change first started to be discussed, some Russians were relieved at the prospect of warmer temperatures. But now, as the evidence and consequence of climate change is better understood the full effect it would bring about is also better understood (Barannik, B., 2004)

The Kola Energy Grid System supports a territory of around 70,000 square kilometers with a population of over 800,000 people living in the Murmansk region (Murmanskstat, 2008). The Kola Energy Grid System is comprised of energy plants and energy grids under different ownerships. They can produce more than 20 TWh per year. The Murmansk region operational capabilities include (Fig.1):

-         17 hydroelectric power plants united by six cascades installed on the rivers Niva, Paz, Kovda, Tuloma, Voronya and Teriberka with a total installation capacity of 1,588.8 MW (about 43% of the combined installation capacity of all power plants in the Murmansk region).

-         Kola Nuclear Power Plant with a total installation capacity of 1,760 MW, (about 47% of the combined installed capacity of all the power plants of the region.

-         Two Combined Heat and Power Plants in the cities of Apatity and Murmansk and number of thermal electric power plants of regional enterprises with total installation capacity 385 MW.

Notably, the Kola Energy System began exploiting renewable energy sources from as early as 1934 when two hydroelectric power plants (HPP - the Niva-2 and Lower Tuloma) - were connected via high-voltage power line. Due to the lack of natural organic fuel resources within the Kola Peninsula’s territory, the development of the region’s energy economy relied heavily upon the construction of HPPs situated on easily accessible and strong current streams on the area’s large and medium-size rivers. The annual installation energy capacity growth for that period was 50 MW (except during the wartime years between 1941 and 1945) and this was achieved primarily by means of the HPPs. It should be noted that the share of thermal electric power plants (TEPP) during that time did not exceed 10%.

The growing demand for energy dramatically increased between 1959 and 1973 and the impossibility of satisfying this demand solely using HPPs led to the decision to build new TEPPs. Following this, the share of TEPP in the region’s energy system increased to 36%. At the same time, several HPPs were also undergoing development. In 1973, the first reactor of the Kola Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) went online with an operational capacity of 440 MW, and within a few years, the plant reached its full design capacity of 1,760 MW. At the same time, TEPPs increased their share in the capacity balance of the regional Energy System to 59%, and their contribution to the region’s combined energy output grew to 70%. Installed capacity growth rate for the period of 1973 to 1984 was around 200 MW per year was accounted for mostly by the nuclear power plant (Krivorutskij, L., Barannik, B., 1999). The year 1990 was a record year for energy consumption in the Murmansk region. With an annual energy output of 19.6 TWh and 2.9 TWh delivered to the neighbouring republic of Karelia, energy demand in the Murmansk region reached its highest peak of 16.6 TWh. The high reliability of the existing structure and capacity of the Kola Energy System meant that electricity could be produced at the lowest price across North-West Russia. This led to competitive capacity of regional goods on domestic and foreign markets (Barannik, 2007). The last HPP’s cascade built on the region’s territory was a cascaded hydropower plants on the Teriberka River. Since 1984, the energy system capacity for the region has remained practically unchanged, although the region’s energy policy was under constant reform during last decades. Energy reform has been more focused upon change of ownership.

Following a series of economic and political crises from the Soviet period through to contemporary Russia, the region’s industrial consumption of electric power has reduced significantly. This has resulted in excess energy capacity output at the Kola Energy System which has led to a decrease in investment and new energy construction opportunity for the area.

On the one hand such a reduction in energy consumption can be regarded as a positive change for the ecology and for climate change. But on the other hand, it offers a number of policy makers a ready-made excuse to not initiate new programs for exploring non-conventional renewable energy sources for the North West territory. It is convenient to claim “as we do not cause climate change so we do not need to pay attention and effort to solve this problem”. Fortunately the North-West of Russia is rich in renewable non-conventional energy sources and also has the scientific resource to demonstrate the opportunities of these sources for the regional economy.

Renewable energy potential of Kola Peninsula

Wind energy. On the northern coast of Kola Peninsula, wind speeds reach 7 to 9m per second. The Barents Sea coast is ideally situated for the application of wind energy converts (WECs). Notably, in the coastal area, the year-to year changes of average annual wind speeds do not vary greatly, fluctuations are limited to within 5% to 8%. At the same time, the variation coefficient estimated for the regions river stream-flow rates ranges from between 15% and 20%. Thus, wind energy exposure is subject to less variability than the energy of stream-flow in the Murmansk region. Technical wind energy resources for the peninsula are shown in Table 1, where four different areas have been defined by the different levels of a multi-year wind speed average at an elevation of ten meters:

-         area 1 – the multi-year wind speed average is less than 7 m/s;

-         area 2 – fluctuations occur between 6 m/s and 7 m/s;

-         area 3 – fluctuations occur between 5 m/s and 6 m/s;

-         area 4 – fluctuations occur between 4 m/s and 5 m/s.

Table 1.

Wind resources for the Kola Peninsula at the ground-air interface (Minin, Dmitriev, 2007)

If wind turbines are built in these areas at a distance of ten wind wheel diameters from each other, then the total installed capacity of the WECs will reach around 120 million kW, while the annual power output (technical resource) will total about 360 TWh, this greatly exceeds the current regional electric power demand as mentioned above.

The accessible part of these resources absolutely warrants inclusion within the peninsula’s energy and economic model. Wind could supply electric power to remote decentralized consumers, such us small secluded settlements and villages, weather stations, beacons, border patrol quarters, and sites of the Russian Northern Fleet to significantly reduce high diesel fuel expenses. At the same time, the 17 HPPs with total capacity 1,600 MW (including over 1,000 MW near the shoreline of the Barents Sea) at the disposal of the Kola Energy System create unique conditions for a wide-scale wind energy application to include large-scale system-integrated wind turbine parks to support the electric and heat energy balance of the region. The favourable conditions– extensive areas with high wind potential, infrastructure availability of roads for WEC delivery, potential connection to the grid, and locations close to existing HPPs – are certainly of relevance the Serebryanka and Teriberka HPP’s cascades. It is scientifically proven that the total capacity of WECs placed here could easily reach 500 MW, more than quarter of aging Kola NPP.

Stream-flow energy. There are two ways for HPP development in the Murmansk region. From conventional larger rivers and also from the smaller rivers of the Kola Peninsula.

Large river first priority construction sites, include HPP’s cascade projects on the Iokanga River with an installed capacity of 360 MW, on the Eastern Litsa River with a combined capacity of 380 MW, and on the Ponoy River with a combined capacity of 1,800 MW. All these projects have been designed as a peak of intermediate energy sources with the specific provision made that their construction will take place after the second construction stage of the Kola NPP has been completed. As of today, judging from their project capacity and output specifications, nothing stops them being used in conjunction with major wind energy converts of commensurable capacity.

As to the stream-flow energy development from small rivers, the first priority river sites for the construction of system-integrated small-scale hydropower plants are shown on fig. 2 and HPPs projects features are given in table 2.

Fig 2. Small-scale HPPs projects in Murmansk region (Minin, Dmitriev, 2007)

Table 2. Small-scale HPPs projects on Kola Peninsula(Data from Lengidroproekt in cooperation with Kola Science Center)

The aspiration of obtaining a cheap and independent source of electrical and thermal power drives energy suppliers to explore the potential application of local renewable energy sources except as mentioned, wind and hydro power such as: tidal energy of Barents and White Seas; solar energy; energy of biogas from waste of agricultural activity, dumps and sewage of settlements; energy of sea waves; low-potential thermal energy (heat pumping from geo and water masses).

Energy of biogas from waste of agricultural activity, dumps and sewage of settlements. Today, the following approach to utilization of biodegradable waste from poultry breeding and livestock is widely applied in the world. Organic waste recycling into organic fertilizers and into biogas. Gas methane is done in biogas installations (methane tanks) without oxygen, such a process is called anaerobic digestion. Examples of energy contents in different substrates are given in table 3 (Tormod Briseid, 2008).

Table 3.

Examples of energy contents in different substrates

Regional NGO “GAIA” initiated several expeditions around the Kola peninsula to explore the perspectives for renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. During one such expedition to the Kovdor agricultural complex it was found the first on the peninsula bio-reactors for bio-gas production, used for supplying electricity, heat and hot water for the “Leipi” complex. This first biogas installation started to produce methane in 2004.

Low-potential thermal energy. The low potential heat of the Earth core can be extracted on the basis of the heat pump principle - working like a common refrigerator’s performance. The heat pump captures the low potential heat energy of the ground or water or even ambient air for heating buildings after a preliminary transformation into high potential heat. The low potential geothermal energy in Murmansk region is not utilized yet. However there is a site in the Khibiny mountains studied by geologists and covered by a net of drilled holes. This place is the unique in scale potential source of heat. (Kotomin A., Kamenev E., 2008)

Thermometer devices in 20 drilled holes demonstrated an average geothermal gradient 2.58^oC on each 38.8m of depth. In most of these drilled holes can be seen a temperature line growing from +5^oC on the 200m depth to +20^oC on 800m depth. Such abnormally high thermo generation is not typical for the rest of the peninsula.

There are prerequisites for development of this renewable non-conventional source of energy. In the case here, there are huge mining complexes and situated nearby, a city-satellite with a high population density. Clearly, there is demand for heat energy in cold climate above the Polar Circle when sited near a unique source of thermal heat.

Extensive study of the ground’s thermal features is essential before beginning mining exploration. On the territory of Kola Peninsula there are plans for new mine extractions and the earlier research from the company geologists indicate the possibility of new sources of geothermal heat being identified in the region.

Tidal energy of Barents and White Seas. Research on the possibility of harvesting tidal energy was carried out in Russia by Lev Bernstein since 1938. (Bernstein L., 1987). The most significant technical tidal energy resources of the coastline of Kola peninsula are shown in table 4. The first Russian Tidal Power Plants (TPP) is situated in Kislaya Bay since 1968. Two TPPs may be placed in Kola and Lumbovsky bays. The biggest tidal recourse is concentrated in Mezen neck.

Table 4.

Technical tidal energy resources of the Barents and White seas

Energy efficiency and economy studies have shown that economically, tidal energy is more promising when using medium and large-scale TPP as these reduce specific fixed costs. Moreover the larger the TPP, the lower the unit costs derived from smoothing out the fluctuations in the TPP’s energy conversion. The economic effect improves significantly if the energy from TPP (cycling from daily and monthly variations) is transformed into guaranteed supply energy with help of HPP of pumped-storage power plants. These were proven by engineering and feasibility researches.

Energy of sea waves. The efforts to evaluate wind-induced wave parameters and the pattern of their variation, as well as research on potential impact of wave energy installations on the environment and shoreline erosion formation, interaction with shipping were intensified at the beginning of the 1970’s. (Volshanik V., etal. 1983).

Table 5.

Renewable power and annual energy values of White and Barents seas

Renewable wave power certainly is only part of full wave power. There are different opinions on the proportion. Some calculations show that for the Barents Sea, renewable wave power reaches 58.5 kW per one square kilometers of the basin (Matushevsky, 1982).

Solar energy. This resource is the most significant of the available renewable energy sources (Minin V., etal. 1992). But the particular conditions in life in the sub-arctic do pose a number of difficulties with regard to developing solar energy. But as the means for exploiting solar energy continually develop then this resource warrants attention.

Scandinavia has demonstrated that solar power can be an effective solution providing a heat supply. Seasonal changes in sunshine durations at Sweden’s Ingelstad and at Umba settlement on the northern coast of the White Sea also demonstrate this. Using Swedish heat accumulator designs, accumulators could be located at underground thermal reservoirs and at ground base reservoirs which are thoroughly insulated from their surroundings.

The practicality of solar heating systems depends not only on the geographic latitude of location and duration of solar energy exposure but also on the solar energy collection cost compared against other conventional energy and fuel costs. Although as solar technologies become less expensive to produce so these technologies will become more viable.

In summary, it can be stated that well established renewable energy strategies such as availability, stability, reliability, profitability are inherently sustainable and , they are pollution-free and are politically acceptable (when compared against fossil or nuclear energy) and so if adopted, will help to conserve fossil fuel for generations to come and will satisfy growing energy demands. Furthermore, renewable energy can be seen to be economically viable and profitable and will create new workplaces and employment for the region.