China wants in on Russian wind park project
Green power was a key issue of discussion during last week’s Karelian government visit to the Chinese province of Fujian. A 60 MW wind park is planned built offshore in the White Sea. It has an estimated price of 9 billion rubles, and is considered one of the most perspective investment projects in Karelia, the regional government informs.
It could become Russia’s first offshore wind park.
According to regional Deputy Governor Vladimir Timofeev, this is what the Chinese want.
«We have agreed to develop the wind power project – this is what the Chinese are most interested in,» Timofeev says to TASS.
A Chinese delegation with technical experts is due to come to the northwest Russian region in May, and official documents are expected to be formalized during that visit. The specialists will review the project including technical aspects of the offshore location, the deputy governor says.
Both Rosatom, the state nuclear power company, and the Russian Fund for Direct Investments are likely partners in the project. But is it the Chinese side which is talking on the full responsibility for project preparations.
The White Sea wind project came on the Russian-Chinese agenda as part of a cooperation deal signed in November 2016 by former Karelian Governor Aleksandr Khudilainen and Vice President of Chinese energy company Sinomec Li Yan.
«The development of this project will not only improve the energy situation, it will also create jobs and promote the image of the republic», said regional leader Khudilainen.
The Republic of Karelia is today dependent of its hydro power generation and energy imports from the neighboring regions of Murmansk and Leningrad Oblast.
The Chinese company Sinomec is from before investing in the development of a new hydropower station in Karelia. The company is one of the stakeholders in the Beloporozhsky project, the first investment object in Russia of BRICS investment body New Development Bank.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Arctic nickel, not oil, could soon power the world’s cars, Blog by Mia Bennett, Cryopolitics
Finland: Nuclear plant construction in North Finland goes ahead despite lack of permit, Yle News
Norway: Dwindling interest in Norway’s Arctic oil raises many questions, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: An international collaboration behind Russia’s second Arctic LNG project, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Sweden’s climate minister : U.S. withdrawal from Paris sends a bad signal, Radio Sweden
United States: Big questions emerge over $43 billion gas-export deal between Alaska and China, Alaska Dispatch News
