Wood-based energy in the republic of Karelia

The issue of renewable energy has not been a priority in Russia for many years. Basically for the reason of huge fossil fuel resources. Nevertheless, during the last few years situation has substantially changed. Russian government admits that our country should struggle the threat to national security connected with increasing technological gap between Russia and developed countries in the area of renewable sources of energy use.

The issue of bioenergy, specifically wood-based energy is topical nowadays. Nordic countries have already succeeded in that direction and may set an example for the neighboring countries. At the regional level Russia has a potential for development of renewable sources of energy. The Republic of Karelia and North Karelia (in Finland) are regions with high potential of wood based energy production and may contribute heavily to Russian-Finish cooperation in bioenergy dimension. The Republic of Karelia has a huge forest sector and developed trade relations to Fin-land that is a significant source of income.

The position of wood based energy in North Karelia is strong as bioenergy (forest sector) is one of the leading industries in the region. It lets as think that the North Karelia sets a great example for being totally independent from oil power.

The Republic of Karelia possesses a huge forest area that leads to potential of forest energy production. However used fuels are mainly presented by light or heavy oil and coal. Indeed fossil fuels could be converted to wood chips. It is a very convenient way as heating plants are often located next to forests with reasonable transportation distances from harvesting sites to villages.

Potentially the Karelian forest sector could attract investments in bioenergy development. In connection with the complexity of the issue of wood-based energy development in the Republic of Karelia a swot analysis is conducted. Swot anslysis is made in order to estimate the potential of wood-based energy in the RK.

A SWOT analysis is a structured planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Contribution to municipal economy is a positive effect of wood-based energy development. With the introduction of new manufactures in rural areas, more working places are created.

As for weaknesses firstly it is lack of development in domestic bioenergy technology. To introduce the successful system of heating based on forest energy special equipment is needed. At the same time they are very expensive. Forest energy development requires skilled personnel in design, implementation and maintenance. Russian regions is acknowledged to have poor transportation system. Thus, the Republic of Karelia Special wood chip trucks are needed for production and delivery of chip. However the road conditions in our country complicate the delivery systems making it less mobile and low passing.

Forest energy may provide the region with a number of new opportunities. Annually due to fires and wind storms trees are suffered but not further used. If all of them are utilized it may sufficiently increase the potential of wood based energy. Thus damages can be converted to opportunity for production of additional energy.

The first serious threat is high investment cost. Indeed, the costs of technologies and equipment needed for bioenergy production is quite high. Obviously, potential investors are aware of the risk and high interest rates. Lack of government support is a real obstacle. The Russian government does not provide any subsidy for forest energy production. On the contrary, the state supports transport of fossil fuels to the forest regions of Russia. In Russia, wood is mainly from final felling, and therefore, a significant amount of small-sized trees from thinning are not available for bioenergy.

To sum up we can clearly see that there are a range of problems of development of wood-based bioenergy. However such a source of energy is a convenient alternative to traditional energy sources.

К. А. Зиалян