Off-Grid Renewable Energy As A Chance For Sustainable Development Of The South Of Russia

The problems of renewable energy sources development in Russia are complex and require long-term structural solutions in national socio-economy system. Currently, the Russian economy stays about two and half times less energy efficient and more carbon intensive than other comparable modern countries. General population on its own has not yet embraced energy efficiency as a social value. Among the main barriers to deployment of renewable energy technologies pointed out by experts are the lack of political, legislative and regulatory support, energy prices that do not reflect the costs of production, low electric power and heat tariffs, lack of information for decision makers, and preference for centralized energy supplies barriers all contribute to an inadequate investment climate for renewable energy technologies. But in some southern regions of Russia with favorable natural conditions and a comparatively low degree of economic centralization the situation is different. Good environmental conditions are very important for socio-economic development of two of those southern regions, the Krasnodar Region and the Republic of Adygea, which are currently promoted as tourist areas. Because of rapid infrastructure and economic development, the Krasnodar region has the biggest shortage of electricity in the country. The advantage of Krasnodar Region is the relatively low level of centralization of population and economic activity in the major cities. It makes off-grid technologies a growing focus of interest. In this paper the natural conditions for development renewable energy in Krasnodar region are studied, the potential environmental and ecological effects of renewables of different types are evaluated. For the Russian economy at present time the problem of lack of investment and unemployment is not as important as the problem of structural imbalances. Deindustrialization characterized structural change in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the transition to a market economy, and has transformed in early 2000 into reallocation of labor and capital to the oil & gas industry.Therefore, instead of the traditional input-output tool that estimates the number of jobs, salaries, and overall economic activity that will likely result from the renewable power project (JEDI model), we use a simplified approach, which allows us to identify the potential beneficiaries from growing demand for renewables among Russian manufacturers of power equipment. It is demonstrated that the expected environmental effect from the biogas and heat pumps technologies implementation in the Krasnodar region is the most significant in comparison with other types of renewable energy sources.