Director of Sustainable Development of En+ Anton Butmanov
At the Russia-Africa forum, within the framework of the track “Cooperation in the field of science and technology”, the session “Advanced technologies for the sustainable development of Africa” was held. The meeting participant, Anton Butmanov, Director of Sustainable Development of En +, visited the open studio of Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda, where he spoke about possible points of contact between our country and Africa.
40 THOUSAND DOLLARS OR UP TO 4 YEARS
“Our company manages a cascade of hydroelectric power plants on the Angara and Yenisei rivers with an installed capacity of more than 15 gigawatts. At the same time, the developed hydroelectric potential of Russia is only 20%. Africa has even less – 10%, – noted the expert. – This speaks of the enormous potential of our countries in terms of the development of hydroelectric energy. If developed, it will make an important contribution to the energy transition, the achievement of climate goals, and other environmental, economic, and social issues.”
The session also focused on the fight against plastic pollution. This is a global problem, especially for Africa. It was even more valuable for Russian experts to study the experience of African colleagues.
“For example, there is a hydroelectric power station on the Ruzizi river, the largest in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Anton Butmanov said. – Plastic pollution has reached gigantic levels: 90 kilometers of the river brought so much plastic to the hydroelectric power station that one of the four hydroelectric units stopped. And this is minus 6 megawatts of the power system. A similar story happened on Ruzizi-2 HPP – this is already minus 20 megawatts. And we saw how colleagues solved this problem. For example, in Kenya the sale, production and import of plastic bags is prohibited: up to 4 years in prison or a fine of $40,000. Also since 2008, plastic bags have been banned in Rwanda and enforcement of the ban is strict, with fines of up to $60.”
Do you think it does not concern us? Does not matter how. The expert recalled that since 2019 En+ supports the scientific expedition for environmental monitoring of Lake Baikal. Study of water pollution. Scientists say the world’s largest freshwater lake is seriously contaminated with microplastics. This is mainly due to the fact that in the Baikal regions “there is not enough good tourist infrastructure, as a result, spontaneous tourism flourishes.
“We shared our findings with other companies in the region and the Baikal Plastic Free association was created,” says the source. – Deputies of the State Duma have presented a bill to ban single-use plastic in Lake Baikal. The document passed the first reading, the second and third were scheduled for July, but the hearings were postponed until autumn. We are very hopeful that the document will be adopted.”
A regular meeting of the Baikal Plastic Free Association took place last week. Irkutsk residents take the experience of Rwanda and Kenya as an example and ask themselves the question: why are cars inspected at the entrance to African parks for the presence of single-use plastic, but we cannot do this?
“When the plastic bill was considered, a detailed analysis of international experience, including African countries, was made,” says the expert.
CLEAN ENERGY
In recent years, the En+ holding has been developing a large New Energies program to replace hydroelectric units in the Angara-Yenisei HPP cascade. This allows you to generate more electricity with the same volume of water. And this means that the Russians use more clean energy. In this way, the emissions derived from the operation of coal power plants are leveled.
“Our company was the first on the Russian market to qualify its facilities for I-REC low-carbon energy certificates. We occupied about 60-70% of the market when the international system I-REC left the country, – noted Anton Butmanov. – Now we are working with national voluntary certificates. This is where it is very important to synchronize with colleagues on the standards to have mutual recognition of these systems.”
In turn, African colleagues are interested in technologies in the field of construction and modernization of hydroelectric power plants. In international practice, there is a methodology for assessing the sustainability of hydropower plants (developed by the International Hydropower Association, IHA). Russia has developed its own methodology with similar approaches, but taking into account national characteristics. According to this methodology, for the development of high-quality and sustainable hydroelectric facilities, it is necessary to assess all risks, including climatic, economic, social and environmental impacts. For example, we measure greenhouse gases from hydroelectric dams. They show the near absence of methane: about 2 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour of electricity. This is a very good result!
