JSC RusHydro has taken an active part in the international Renewable Energy conference held at the European Parliament in Brussels on 29–30 May.

At the conference, co-chaired by member of the European Parliament and Senior Vice-Chairman of the delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Co-operation Committee Reino Paasilinna and Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of JSC RusHydro Vasiliy Zubakin, the Russian draft law in the sphere of renewable energy was discussed.

The Russian sector of renewable energy sources offers major opportunities for investment, but currently a mechanism for regulation of and financial support for renewable energy is still lacking on the legislative plane. The draft law under discussion envisages provision of such support. For the purposes of encouraging investment in renewable energy, the law needs to be passed urgently. Such is the main conclusion of the Renewable Energy conference.

The European Union supports development of renewable energy in Russia. The head of the EuropeAid group project, promoting development of a suistanable hydro-power industry in Russia, Patrick Willems noted: “I hope that favourable conditions will be created in Russia for expanding investment in Renewable Energy Sources”.

The investors participating in the conference expressed optimism concerning the possibilities of the Russian market of Renewable Energy Sources. Hans Duivenvoorden, head of the wind energy department of the Dutch power agency Ecofys, supporting construction of a wind power station in the Murmansk area, believes that “adoption of the law and its enforcement will increase production of renewable energy in Russia”.

Russia possesses tremendous, still unrealised renewable energy potential. As Vasiliy Zubakin has stated: “By 2020, JSC RusHydro intends to double its electric power output from hydro-electric power stations”. At the closing of the conference, he expressed the opinion that this was only the first meeting and that representatives of Russia and the European Union would continue, in the future, to meet in order to exchange experience.