Report - UNDP Russia

continue to use solid fuel for a long period oftime (mainly coal power stations in Siberia andeastern Russia) require a different approach.Choice of the reconstruction option should bebased on the expected period of service 25 .Combustion of coal in fluidized-bed boilers willenable use of low-grade and high-ash coals.Improvement of fuel quality – enrichment,pelletizing and other approaches – is also anoption.Any project for construction orreconstruction of coal-fired power plants shouldbe approached with great caution, takingmaximum account of existing environmentalconditions and proposed new environmentalstandards of WHO, the European Commissionand other international organizations.Installation of coal-fired combined heat & powerplants (CHPs) near cities has already elicitedprotests: planned construction of a CHP nearZheleznogorsk in Krasnoyarsk Territory isopposed by local people who fear pollution of airand underground water 26 .In the north-western Kaliningrad Region,local people have voted against construction of aCHP using coal from Kemerovo near the town ofSvetly 27 .There is an investment program fortransferring large fuel-fired condensing powerplants (CPPs) and CHPs from coal to naturalgas. The stations concerned are:Verkhnetagilskaya (generator #12), Kashirskaya(generator #3), Troitskaya, Serovskaya, andKharanorskaya. However, plannedchangeovers of Shaturskaya-5, Ryazanskaya,Novo-Bogoslovskaya, and Verkhnetagilskayafrom coal to gas have been delayed.Cherepetskaya,Novocherkasskaya,Astrakhanskaya, Omskaya stations will burnmore coal and proposals have been made forconstruction of large coal-powered CPPS andCHPs in Murmansk, Tambov, Rostov, Volgograd,Sverdlovsk, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk,Omsk, Tomsk, Sakhalin Regions, the Republicsof Mordovia, Buryatia, and Udmurtia, Trans-Baikal and Khabarovsk Territories.There is currently a freeze onconstruction of thermal power plants (TPPs,which are smaller coal-fired power stations),including the Medvezhyegorskaya,Novgorodskaya, Kaluzhskaya, Petrovskaya andAbagurskaya projects, in favor of expansion ofexisting TPPs (Smolenskaya, Reftinskaya,Yuzhno-Uralskaya and Kemerovo). This isundoubtedly positive from an environmentalviewpoint. Commissioning of a coal-poweredunit at an existing TPP takes 3-4 years, whileconstruction of greenfield stations requires 5-8 years. So that mass development of coalfiredgeneration will not go ahead in Russiabefore 2020–2025 at the soonest. Applicationof modern coal combustion technologies maybe feasible by that time.4.1.3. Oil & gas pipelinesand threats of highlydangerous infections dueto climate warmingin Arctic regionsGlobal warming, particularly in Arcticregions, brings a threat of deformation inpermafrost zones. The total permafrost zone isexpected to shrink by 10-12% in the coming 20-25 years and its border will move by 150-200km to the north-west 28,29 . Risk of damage toinfrastructure located in the permafrost zonehas been assessed using a permafrost hazardindex, which is highest in Chukotka, the coastalarea of the Karsk Sea, in Novaya Zemlya and inthe northern part of European Russia. Globalwarming creates a real risk of damage to burial25A.G.Tumanovskiy, V.R.Kotler, Possible environmental solutions for heat & power plants // Teploenergetika, 2007, No.6, pp. 5-1126www.eprussia.ru/epr/98/7259)/27www.rambler.ru/news/0/0/1103450528O.A.Anisimov, M.A.Byelolutskaya, Assessment of the impact of climate change and permafrost degradation on infrastructure innorthern regions of Russia // Meteorology and Hydrology, 2002, No.6, pp. 15-2229O.A.Anisimov, A.A.Velichko, P.F.Demchenko, A.V.Yeliseev, I.I.Mokhov, V.P.Nechayev, Climate change impact on the permafrost in thepast, present and future // Atmosphere and Ocean Physics, 2004, No.1 (volume 38), pp. 25-3979