Evgeny Grabchak: “Traditional energy sources are the foundation, and this foundation can be changed in an evolutionary way”
“The global reassessment of ‘green’ transition opportunities has shown that traditional energy sources are the foundation, that net zero should be achieved taking this foundation into account, and that first and foremost this foundation needs to be changed in an ‘evolutionary way’,” said Evgeny Grabchak at a session entitled “Energy Transformation in Russia: Opportunities and Challenges” at Russian Energy Week.
“Our conservative energy policy has allowed us to preserve both our existing technological capacity and the balance of energy sources that we use, including to support economic activity within Russia. But we’re not resting on our laurels, our energy balance can already be called one of the ‘greenest’.”
“By relying on gas as our primary energy source, we’ll achieve decarbonization. At the same time, adherence to existing operating principles will help us avoid a situation in which a return to coal generation is regarded as painful,” explained the Deputy Minister.
Evgeny Grabchak recalled that Russia already has a high share of low-carbon generation. “Our energy balance, i.e., gas, nuclear, hydropower, the volume of renewable energy resources we have and our ‘green’ energy plans – which we’re not reconsidering and which we may only amend slightly – means that we can say that in Russia, our energy is roughly 80% clean or relatively clean energy, and that this volume isn’t going to drop,” he said.
The Deputy Energy Minister noted that the government has different ways of supporting the energy sector.
“Major direct public investments are being made in the development of the use of gas, and the social gasification programme is gathering pace. In some regions, boiler houses are switching from fuel to gas, which shows the significant development of the housing and utilities sector. The transport sector is switching to natural gas vehicle fuel.”
“Support is also going to big projects involving upgrades to trunk infrastructure,” said Evgeny Grabchak.
Read more about the REW 2022 business programme on the official website: rusenergyweek.com.
