PRESS: Energy Ministry wants to halve number of waste-fired plants

MOSCOW, Apr 29 (PRIME) -- The Energy Ministry has suggested halving the  number of waste-fired power plants that RT-Invest is to build in the Russian regions by 50%, Vedomosti business daily reported on Thursday quoting minutes of a ministerial meeting.

“The Energy Ministry’s position is that development of power utilization of solid waste through the mechanism of capacity supply agreements is unreasonable, and that the planned amount of plants should be halved,” Vedomosti said quoting the document.

Currently, RT-Invest is building five waste-fired power plants in the Moscow Region and the republic of Tatarstan with a combined capacity of 355 megawatts (MW) to burn 3.35 million tonnes of solid waste per year. The company invested 180 billion rubles in the plants, and wants to launch them until the end of 2023.

The company also wanted to build 25 more plants worth around 800 billion rubles near the cities of Sochi, Taman, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Nizhny Novgorod, and in the Stavropol Region.

A ministry representative said there is no need in many waste fired plants given the forecasted amount of solid waste in the regions where the plants should be built. There also no deficit of power production capacities making the plants only necessary as one of the technological solutions for utilization of solid waste.

(74.9390 rubles – U.S. $1)

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