ST. PETERSBURG, May 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is working on the development of promising new energy sources, but in the next 30 years while power consumption is growing existing sources of energy will essentially remain the same, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
“Of course, we are already thinking about promising sources of energy: renewable energy, hydrogen energetics, solar energy – we are also working in this direction,” Putin said at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, this year themed “Sustaining Confidence in a World Undergoing Transformation.”
“But at the same time … we are well aware that the total energy consumption in the next 30 years will be growing, but the structure of primary sources will not change. In this regard, we are going to pay a lot of attention to both hydrocarbon production and development of nuclear energy,” the Russian leader added.
Earlier this week, Putin gave the command to start a new hydraulic unit at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant. Seven new hydraulic units are operating at the dam with a total capacity of 4.5 gigawatts.
The Russian president has also visited the construction site of the Nizhne-Bureiskaya dam, whose power station will have four hydraulic units with a combined capacity of 320 megawatts and advanced flood protection measures. The construction of the facility is to be completed by 2016.
The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources is also planning to continue hydrocarbon exploration in the Caspian Lowland as well as the West Siberian and East Siberian oil and gas areas.
On Wednesday, Russian energy giant Gazprom and China’s CNPC sealed a historic deal for gas deliveries. The 30-year $400 billion contract provides for the sale of Russian gas to China at a volume of 38 billion cubic meters per year with delivery via an eastern pipeline.