Russia to Develop Biogas Projects

Russia to Develop Biogas Projects to Help Power Rural Regions

Russia plans to develop biogas to provide fuel and power in rural regions, supplementing fossil fuels in the world’s biggest exporter of oil and gas.
The country may produce 66 billion cubic meters of biogas a year from agricultural waste, the Energy Ministry said today in an e-mailed statement. That is equivalent to 33 billion liters (8.7 billion gallons) of gasoline or diesel a year or could generate 110 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 1 billion gigajoules of heat, it said.
The Energy and Agriculture Ministries plan to seek subsidies and legislative support from the government to expand use of the renewable resource and make it profitable, Deputy Agriculture Minister Shamil Vakhitov said in the statement. “Without these measures, bioenergy has no future in Russia.”
OAO Inter RAO UES and China’s National Bio Energy Co. agreed June 16 to create the Green Energy Corp. joint venture by the end of this year to overhaul inefficient power plants that run on coal and fuel oil to include the use of biomass, according to the statement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow msysoyeva@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-18/russia-to-develop-biogas-projects-to-help-power-rural-regions.html