Environmental management from the point of energy transition: The example of the Rybinsk reservoir

S. Nekrasov
Additional contact information
S. Nekrasov: Central Economics and Mathematics Institute RAS (CEMI RAS), Moscow, Russia

Journal of the New Economic Association, 2023, vol. 61, issue 4, 110-126

Abstract: The transfer of the currently emerging international practice of solving the problem of global warming to Russia will lead to an increase in energy supply costs. The result of CO2 absorption projects at thermal power plants will be a 120-230% increase in the cost of electricity produced by them, which will have a negative impact on socio-economic development. The absorption of carbon dioxide from exhaust gases in industry and energy is a capital-intensive and energy-consuming process. An alternative to preventing an increase in the cost of energy supply for the Russian Federation is to reduce the negative anthropogenic impact by using its natural potential. The increase in the annual absorption of carbon dioxide by Russian forests, which happened over 30 years, is comparable to its current emissions in thermal power engineering and heat supply. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the need to change the methodology for solving the problem of transition to carbon-free energy. In contrast to the transfer into Russia the projects tested in the West for the absorption of CO2 of exhaust gases from industry and energy sector, one should be based on a systematic approach to carbon dioxide sequestration using opportunities that have not yet been implemented. Using the example of a study of environmental management in the area of the Rybinsk reservoir, the existence of a more effective solution for reducing CO2 content is shown in comparison with projects implemented in Western countries. Due to the growth of the power system capacity, which is ahead of electricity consumption, the importance of electricity generation at the Rybinsk HPP (hydro power plant) has significantly decreased. Payments for the utilization of greenhouse gases due to reforestation will be at least 15 times higher than the decrease in the HPP's revenue due to a change of reservoir level. Due to the restoration of forests in part of the reservoir area, it is possible to ensure the sequestration of 1.5 million tons of CO2 per year, which is equivalent to the implementation of projects to capture CO2 of exhaust gases at gas-fired power plants with a capacity of at least 0.92 MW.

Keywords: reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; reforestation; renewable energy sources; clean electricity production; hydropower (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: P42 Q26 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.econorus.org/repec/journl/2023-61-110-126r.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nea:journl:y:2023:i:61:p:110-126

DOI: 10.31737/22212264_2023_4_110-126

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the New Economic Association is currently edited by Victor Polterovich and Aleksandr Rubinshtein

More articles in Journal of the New Economic Association from New Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alexey Tcharykov ().