Degtyarev K.S., Berezkin M.Y., Sinyugin O.A. —
Potential Assessments for Local Renewable Energy Resources of Arkhangelsk Region
// Arctic and Antarctica. – 2024. – ¹ 4.
– P. 24 - 41.
DOI: 10.7256/2453-8922.2024.4.72226
URL: https://en.e-notabene.ru/arctic/article_72226.html
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Abstract: The article analyses production volumes and consumption patterns of heat and electricity in the Arkhangelsk region, based on statistical and corporate data. The work reveals that, despite the fact that the number of generation facilities operating on the base of local biofuels is rapidly increasing, the region remains highly dependent on hydrocarbon, mainly imported from the other regions. Currently, some two-third of all boiler houses and a significant part of power plants use local wood fuel, but the transition to biofuels primarily affects low-capacity generating facilities. As a result, the total share of biofuels in energy production in the region is no more than 10%, with a large and still underutilized volume of wood waste and other renewable energy resources. At the same time, a significant part of the wood fuel used is firewood, primarily in rural areas. The work proposes an assessment of the energy potential of logging waste. It shows that with the existing volumes of wood harvesting, the wood waste share in energy production in the region may amount to 15-50%, depending on the degree of the waste use. The author also identified other renewable energy resources in the region and their possible role in its energy supply: hydro, wind, solar, peat, and tidal energy. The auhtor identified the districts of the region where creation and development of energy based on local renewable energy resources is most in demand. Mainly there are districts beyond the system of centralized power supply network, that cover some 19% of the region's area with more than 9% of its rural population, there electricity is supplied with dozens of small-scaled diesel power plants. For them there were assessed the volume of needed autonomous power capacities on the base of the local renewable resources.