Solar

Why Russia's Largest Independent Power Company Built a Solar Facility in Siberia

One of Russia’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities has been grid-connected in Abakan, located in the Republic of Khakassia.

The Khakass capital in central Russia just north of Mongolia, historically a place of political exile, also enjoys a continental climate characterized by hot summers and frigid winters.

According to EuroSibEnergo, which launched the 5.2-MW solar plant (Figure 5) in southeastern Siberia last December, Abakan boasts more than 310 sunny days on average over a year. The vertically integrated company with major assets concentrated in Eastern Siberia said this makes “a vast solar potential available for generation of energy sufficient to meet 1/30 of the Abakan city’s total electricity demand using the clean renewable energy source.”

siberia

5. Siberian sun. EuroSibEnergo’s newly opened solar photovoltaic facility in Abakan, in the Republic of Khakassia, comprises 20,000 solar modules arranged over about 44 acres. The independent power company says the project produces 6.5 million kWh annually. Courtesy: EuroSibEnergo

The project got a boost after it won a renewable power generation investment project contest held by the Russian Energy Ministry in 2013. More than 50% of the plant’s equipment was built in Russia, EuroSibEnergo noted. The company even established its own facility to grow multicrystalline silicon ingots in the city of Angarsk, in Russia’s Irkutsk region, and an invertor assembly facility in the city of Divnogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory. All in all, the project cost about $8 million, it said.

Sonal Patel, associate editor

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