New coal stations need to be built in Siberia and the Far East

Sergey Kondratiev, Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Energy and Industry of Russia newspaper about the construction of new power plants in Siberia and the Far East.

Not all coal-fired generation in Russia should be converted to gas. On the contrary, it is necessary to build new coal-fired thermal power plants, improving the technology, Sergey Kondratiev said in an interview with the Energy and Industry of Russia newspaper.

He notes that coal-fired power plants can be quite environmentally friendly, and their use can be cost-effective, especially in areas where natural gas or sustainable (dispatched) renewable energy sources (RES) are not available.

“I think that on the horizon until 2050, it is economically justified to keep coal-fired power plants in Siberia and the Far East. First of all, thermal power plants and boiler houses should be converted to natural gas. Here, among the most likely "candidates" are thermal power plants in Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and other large cities," Sergey Kondratiev noted.