Grigoriy Nazarov, Chief Executive Officer at NovaWind (ROSATOM’s wind power division), took part in the Renewable Energy: Low Electricity Prices or Technological Sovereignty session held on June 15 at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
The session brought together industry experts from the government authorities, renewable energy market players, renewable energy equipment manufacturers, and large power consumers. They discussed which countries would be creating technology and manufacturing equipment and which countries would be buying them, what was needed to achieve technological sovereignty and stabilize prices for domestic equipment, and what industries needed to be created to reduce dependency on commodity markets.
The use of locally produced components is an inherent part of ROSATOM’s development strategy. At present, ROSATOM is Russia’s only manufacturer of multi-megawatt wind turbines and an anchor customer for the Russian producers and suppliers of wind energy equipment and components. Local content in ROSATOM’s wind turbines stands currently at 68%. Pursuant to the government programme for the support of renewable energy producers in the wholesale capacity market, ROSATOM plans to raise local content in its generation facilities to 75% and continue to develop competencies and references in the wind energy sector, expanding the range of products and services and making Russian products more competitive in the global market.
“We can say with confidence by the example of ROSATOM that it is possible to achieve technological sovereignty. Over the past year, we stopped neither production nor construction of generating facilities. In June, we commissioned a new wind farm, the construction of which began last May. As for the local content, we still need some fine-tuning and, possibly, raising the bar. With certain components and technologies in place, we will secure a foothold in the wind energy market, maintaining our supply and production chains and being able to operate and repair the wind farm equipment. We at ROSATOM are planning to increase local content in our facilities to 80–85%,” says NovaWind CEO Grigoriy Nazarov.
“When raising the issue of technological sovereignty, it is important to understand that we should, first and foremost, possess the technology and be able to independently upgrade it and further operate the equipment. Even if Russian companies borrow some technology, they have to work on upgrading it to make it fully ours. We will definitely be able to get an advantage with our commodities and logistics. I think we have very good prospects here and surely can do it,” says Alexey Zhikharev, Director of the Russia Renewable Energy Development Association (RREDA).
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NovaWind is ROSATOM’s wind power division consolidating efforts of the Russian nuclear corporation in advanced areas of the energy generation technology. Established in September 2017, the company accumulates ROSATOM’s competencies in wind power generation, from design and construction to mechanical engineering and operation of wind farms. As of today, NovaWind has commissioned 880 MW of wind power capacity. By 2027, ROSATOM will put a total of around 1.7 GW of wind capacity in operation.
Russian partners of ROSATOM’s wind power projects increase the output of necessary systems and equipment to strengthen the country’s technological sovereignty. Imported components are gradually replaced with Russian-designed products, while technology partnerships with the companies from friendly nations are strengthening. ROSATOM companies are also involved in the production of domestic components, and one of them is ROSATOM’s TVEL Fuel Company. TVEL will launch end-to-end production of rare-earth magnets by 2027. After the factory reaches full capacity in 2028, it will produce 1,000 tons of magnets annually with the possibility of increasing the output to over 3,000 tons after 2030. Rosatom has also announced its composite materials division will launch production of wind turbine blades.
The 26th Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum is a major business event in Eurasia. In 2022, SPIEF brought together over 14,000 guests from 130 countries, and 81 countries sent their official delegations. In 2023, Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation is a title partner to the Forum. For the SPIEF programme, please visit the official website of the Forum at: forumspb.com.
