Surprisingly, a large portion of Russian electricity comes from a renewable source. However, that’s where things end. It was not done out of concern for the environment nor for the people that it serves. This “renewable source” is hydroelectric and the plants were built during the Soviet Union period. These plants were “mega” projects designed to make the then Soviet Republic seem superior on the world stage. They had an image issue in those days, not that they don’t today. The Soviets undertook amazing projects. However, all of them had underlying costs in lives and property. For example, there was the space race, where over 250 Russian Cosmonauts died prior to our landing on the moon. Lives were expendable for the prestige of Mother Russia. Soviet failures were never publicized. Yet the failures were deadly and occurred frequently. Soviet national pride was the foundation of Russian people’s strength and ergo its weakness. If you have ever watched the Netflix series “Lucifer” when Lucifer asks “What is your deepest desire?” you know what I am talking about. In my humble opinion (which is always humble, just ask me), the diplomatic way to approach Russia is to incorporate its national pride in every conversation. Is Russia going to do anything? They are, but ... there’s that pregnant pause. Circa 2010, Dmitry Medvedev, then president of Russia and puppet of Vladimir Putin, proposed Russia get started in renewable energy. This effort required foreign investment, however, and Russia’s means of doing business is hardly user friendly. In fact it discourages most foreign businessmen from even considering it, since investment will inevitably involve some serious palm greasing. To demonstrate this, Donald Trump’s foray into the Moscow Trump Tower was not some mere misstep. It was an involvement that started in 2013. In 2015 Trump signed an agreement with a Russian construction company to go ahead and build the new facility. Evidence now suggests that Putin was to receive the $50 million penthouse as a gift. Even if one does gets by the aforementioned, then there’s the bureaucratic hoop jumping. For example if an investor is going to build a wind turbine or set solar panels the current requirement is that the interested company must purchase 70 percent of the resources from Russia, but there’s one small problem. Initially there were no Russian solar or wind equipment providers. As soon as China expressed an interest, well, now Russia has at least one solar plant, named Hevel and that is now primarily owned by one of Putin’s billionaire buddies, Vekselberg, though he has reportedly divested some of his share in Hevel. Picture Putin as a toll bridge operator. If you want something done in Russia he will let you pass for some kind of “service charge.” That could be “loan shares” in the company you plan to own or a penthouse suite in downtown Moscow or a palace on the Black Sea. The failure of Russia is its elected oligarchy’s power grab and its historical propensity for isolation. These two factors constrict Russia’s growth. An example: Russia has the world’s largest natural gas reserves (proven fields), are seven times that of its nearest rival. In certain parts of Siberia you can literally punch a hole in the ice and hit a vein of natural gas. Without the expense of complicated infrastructure Russia could easily undersell the natural gas market, yet with all this, America — not Russia — is the world’s number one producer of natural gas. This is because America still holds the forefront of innovation coupled with a free market while Russian industry is at the whim of dictator who barely made it out of law school. Putin’s power grab Yokos Oil run by Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the largest and most financially successful gas and oil firm in Europe. In 2003 at the height of Khodorkovsky’s popularity he became the No. 1 contender against Putin in the soon-to-be-held election. Unarmed and sitting in an airplane with a legal flight schedule, Khodorkovsky was arrested at gun point for, of all things, tax fraud. Yukos Oil was the most profitable oil company in the world until Putin sold it off at a “discount” to a firm that eventually ended up in the hands of his buddies at Rosneft Oil Company, which is associated with organized crime. Some of these connections trace to the construction company owned by Andrey Rozov whoTrump personally signed in 2015 to build the Trump Tower Moscow project. Russia is a failure on the world stage especially in energy. You need managers, engineers, planners to make energy a viable commodity not people who murder for hire, run prostitution rings, sell heroine and interfere with elections. Also wholesale mismanagement is so bad it make’s Dilbert’s pointy haired clueless boss look like Lisa Su. For example consider the Sayano Shushenskaya Hydroplant which produced over 6 percent of all of the Soviet Union’s electricity. Considering all the different electric power generating plants, nuclear, coal, gas and oil a hydroplant is the easiest and the cheapest to maintain. This is primarily because there in no “engine” to power the turbines to drive the generator, and there is no volatile fuel to handle. The power is simply run by the proper operation of gates and the gravity of the water behind the dam. Under the “guidance” of the Putin administration, warnings were given that the concrete structure was waning from a number of geological events such as plate tectonics and the shear mass sitting in one spot for 50 years, settling the earth unevenly. Such warnings went unheeded, repairs weren’t done, corners were cut. Finally the turbines succumbed to frailties and ruptured. This was a huge power producing facility. Seventy-five people died needlessly because of this oligarchic neglect. In conclusion Russia has done little to engage alternate energy. It appears in part because there is a lack of incentive, because there is plenty of natural gas so why bother? Russia lacks the skill to create an industry that would support alternate energy, and it lacks the moral courage to do what is right for the world at large. In spite of the fact that Russia has the world’s largest land mass, it has virtually no wind turbines and less than less than 2 gigwatts in solar most of which was produced in the last two years. Most European countries, even where land is limited such as the Netherlands and Germany, still manage to derive over 20 percent of their power from wind and solar. Russia had proposed solar energy deals with China since 2014 which recently came to some fruition only after Putin’s buddy Vekselberg got first dibs on Hevel. Russia’s alternate energy commitments are at best symbolic. Its failure to promote a truly free economic environment is clearly the obstacle to any alternate energy future. Russia has a moral obligation to the rest of the world in regard to energy. Polluting the air and the water is now a global issue and should no longer be ignored by the Russian Federation.
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AuthorJames Bobreski is a process control engineer who has been in the field of electric power production for 43 years. His “Alternate Energy” column runs monthly. Archives
February 2020
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