Russia planning 40 MW wind farm with North Korea

RAO Energy System East, the largest supplier of electricity and heating in the Russia’s Far East, is planning to build four wind farms totaling 40 megawatts on both sides of the Russian-North Korean border.

Two wind farms will be built in the Russian Primorye region, just north of the border with North Korea, as well as two additional wind farms inside North Korea in the Rason trade and economic zone. The information was attributed to Alex Kaplun, RAO’s deputy head of department of strategy and investments. The feasibility study for the wind farm project is being conducted this summer. Assuming the aggressive schedule is met, the wind power farms are anticipated to be officially commissioned and generating electricity in 2016 or 2017.

Kaplun specifically noted that all of the energy generated by the wind farms will be supplied to North Korea. RAO is also evaluating the possibility of energy exports to South Korea and Japan in the more distant future.

Energy industry analysts highlight that this will be the first time that electric power will be regularly exported from Russia to North Korea.

Anatoly Kopylov, the chief of the supervisory board of the Russian Wind Energy Association, also commented that  the investment in the project is likely to be in the range of $55-62 million.

RAO Energy System East already has four wind turbines with a total capacity of 1.075 MW operating in isolated areas in the far east of Russia. Moreover, the firm has two new wind diesel projects (0.9 MW in Kamchatka region and 0.5 MW in Sakhalin region) that are scheduled to become operational in the third quarter of  2015. The company’s website also highlights the firm’s goal install up to 120 MW of renewable energy, but provides no date or timeline for the goal.