“It is high time for Russia to pay attention to biofuel. The future is for it"

Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Gazeta.Ru on promising alternative fuel sources for the regions.

Diesel is the trouble of the Far East

The remoteness of the Far Eastern regions makes local authorities increasingly turn to the use of diesel and fuel oil generation to replace natural gas. However, the cost of generating electricity at such stations, as in the case of geothermal sources, remains extremely high. This largely explains the long-standing subsidized problem of the region - without state subsidies and benefits, electricity tariffs for the local population would have skyrocketed, Kondratiev emphasized.

“At diesel power plants, the cost of electricity generation, taking into account fuel delivery, averages 15-20 rubles per kWh. The national average for all power plants is 1.2-2 rubles. At present, diesel is a disaster for the Far East,” the expert noted.

Atom is still losing the competition

Currently, nuclear and hydroelectric power plants are more costly projects that lose in energy efficiency to the same biofuels. In the vast majority of the eastern regions of Russia, such large-scale facilities would become ineffective due to the same sparsely populated Eastern Siberia and the Far East. However, in the future, remote regions will be able to use the energy produced by floating mini-nuclear power plants to a greater extent, Kondratiev emphasized.