As it became known, Alexander Roslyakov, the owner of “Onego Shipping”, and Igor Bryzgunov, the Chairman of the Russian Association of the Wind Industry, form up a plan to create a wind farm in the Volkhov District of the Leningrad Region in 2022-2023. A similar project was announced by PJSC TGK-1 (Thermal power Generating Company, Russian: TeploGeneriruyushchaya Kompaniya 1), the subsidiary of Gazprom, on the territory of the region. Analysts believe that the wind farms would not enter into competition, since both projects’ total generation capacity wouldn’t excel 0.8% of that of the Northwest region. At the same time, if a private wind farm does not receive an expensive “green” electricity tariff, it will be difficult for it to attract all planned investments.
The private investors’ project will is called “Wind Park N 1 in the Leningrad region“. The installed capacity of the wind farm will be 69 MW, the planned commissioning period is 2022-2023. Now, the facility is in the project stage, shareholders expect to receive a building permit before the end of the year. After that, Mr. Bryzgunov notes, they intend to attract a strategic investor in the project.
For today, according to the legislation, the projects of wind parks in Russia should be 65% localized. According to Mr. Bryzgunov, the shareholders are considering cooperation with the main foreign manufacturers of wind turbines: the German-Spanish “Siemens Gamesa” and the Danish “Vestas” and Ukraian “Fuhrlaender Windtechnology”. “We expect to create prerequisites for localizing this equipment in the region,” Mr. Bryzgunov emphasized.
On payback period of the project, Mr. Bryzgunov said that electricity from the wind farm will be sold on the wholesale market. In addition, in the Leningrad region, there is an industry that is able to assimilate a part of the power facility capacity. Also, the shareholders are discussing the possibility of filing an application for a contest for selecting RES power.
The RES projects, that are being selected now in the Association “NP Market Council” (Russian: NP Sovet Rynka), get the right to win a contract with a guaranteed payback period within 15 years and a 12% per annum basic rate of return. If the “Wind Park N 1 in the Leningrad region” is selected, then an expensive “green” tariff will be imposed for the electricity sale. In this case, the project is guaranteed to attract new investors, because they will have an understanding of when it pays off. If the project does not pass the selection, then, obviously, it will attract much less investors’ attention.
The shareholders of “Wind Park N 1 in the Leningrad region” sent a partnership proposal to the authorities of the region. According to Kommersant, now it is under consideration in the Committee for the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Leningrad region. “According to the administrative deliverance of the Russian government, by 2020 the total share of “green” energy in the country should reach 4.5%. And we are ready to implement eco-friendly and promising projects that will provide consumers with ecenomy power as needed. While private investments can become a good “conduit” of “green” energy to the market of the Leningrad region, we are open to consideration of proposals in the field of renewable sources,” Andrei Gavrilov said, the chairman of the Committee for the Fuel and Energy Complex.
The possibility of constructing a wind farm on the territory of the Leningrad Region was considered by “TGK-1”. Last year, the company held a tender to determine the site for a wind farm with a capacity of up to 50 MW. Despite the fact that the Moscow-based company LLC “PRO GRES”, which won the tender, was to determine the site before the late October 2017, TGK-1 has yet to confirm its intention to build the wind power plant.
“The payback period of the wind farm project, proposed by the private investors, would amount about ten years. There would be no competition with the TGK-1 wind farm, since both projects would only amount no more than 0.8% of the total generation capacity of the Northwest region” thinks Dmitry Markov,the deputy manager of the analysis unit at the CJSC “LMS Investment Company”.
“Except for the hydroelectric power plants inherited from the USSR, which provide one-sixth of the generation of electric power in the Russian Federation, the share of RES in Russia is still vanishingly small and is less than 1%. The energy source is not as important to the energy companies as its net cost. Low operating costs, because of which it is possible to effectively recover capital investments, is an advantage of the RES. Giving that the energy market allows to effectively return investments, this industry has a future. However, while pilot projects are being implemented, payback is not the main thing. At this stage, the main thing is to master technology and to gain an experience” Alexei Kalachev, the analyst at the Finam Group, thinks.