The Russian company PJSC “Fortum”, the main shareholder of which is the Finnish energy concern Fortum, signed an agreement on the sale of the Argayashskaya combined heat and power plant (CHP) in the Chelyabinsk region to the joint-stock company Rusatom Infrastructure Solutions (RIR). This was reported on Thursday, July 8, in the press service of “Fortum”.
“For Fortum Corporation, the sale of the station will be an important step in optimizing the asset portfolio within the framework of a global strategy aimed at achieving carbon neutrality,” explained Alexander Chuvaev, CEO of PJSC Fortum.
This step, together with the gradual withdrawal from coal combustion at Chelyabinsk CHPP-2, will allow the Russian division of the corporation to completely abandon the use of coal by the end of 2022, “he added.
Management will be transferred in the third quarter
Fortum plans to transfer control of the RIR station in the third quarter of 2021. Argayashskaya CHPP will continue to fulfill its obligations to consumers and contractors. The working conditions of the plant’s employees are expected to remain.
Argayashskaya CHPP is the main source of industrial steam for NPO Mayak, a manufacturer of industrial ionizing radiation sources. The NGO is also involved in the reprocessing of irradiated nuclear fuel. The CHPP supplies heat to consumers in Ozersk and Novogorny settlement.
The electric power of the station is 256 MW, and the heat capacity is 824 MW.
Fortum and Uniper Want to Expand Renewable Energy Business in Russia
Fortum is the parent company of Germany-based Uniper. In this regard, Reuters noted that Fortum and Uniper are planning to expand their renewable energy business in Russia.
Rusatom Infrastructure Solutions is a subdivision of the state corporation Rosatom.
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Climate change: permafrost is melting faster in Russia
There used to be a pasture here
Mathias Ulrich, a researcher at the Institute of Geography at Leipzig University, has been studying the degradation (melting) of permafrost in Yakutia for many years. He provided > with his photographs, which captured the consequences of this process. So, these two lakes simply did not exist just a few decades ago. In Soviet times, until the 1960s, they were still engaged in agriculture.
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Climate change: permafrost is melting faster in Russia
Lakes are growing at great speed
The rate at which these two lakes, about 50 kilometers east of Yakutsk, have increased over the past quarter century, is clearly visible in the photographs in the bottom row. But scientists are also carefully studying aerospace imagery. This collection was included in an article that Matthias Ulrich, together with an international group of authors, published in 2017 in the specialized scientific journal Water Resources Research.
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Climate change: permafrost is melting faster in Russia
Building houses on melting soil
Permafrost was also not permanent under the village of Churapcha in Central Yakutia. Due to the thawing of the ground, the runway of the local airfield, which operated during the Soviet era, became unusable. However, local residents, contrary to the advice of experts, continue to build houses on this wet and increasingly shaky soil.
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Climate change: permafrost is melting faster in Russia
This layer of ice will soon be gone
The degradation of permafrost is rapidly progressing even in the Far North. This layer of ice about 10-20 meters thick on the banks of one of the channels in the Lena delta will melt in a matter of years, warns Mathias Ulrich, and then …
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Climate change: permafrost is melting faster in Russia
Soil subsidence has become commonplace
… the soil will sink, perhaps several meters at once, as in this picture. Scientists use the term thermokarst to refer to soil subsidence due to thawing of underground ice. This process, which greatly changes the terrain, is becoming an increasingly serious problem for any infrastructure in the permafrost zone – transport, residential, industrial.
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Climate change: permafrost is melting faster in Russia
What if the piles are not driven deep enough?
The Arctic port of Tiksi is located near the Lena delta. Houses built during the Soviet era stand here, as elsewhere in the permafrost zone, on piles. But if they were not hammered enough, by today’s standards, deep and once permafrost soil begins to thaw under global warming conditions, then the stability of individual buildings and even entire cities may be under threat.
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Climate change: permafrost is melting faster in Russia
Deformed houses
These wooden houses in Yakutsk, and especially their roofs, clearly show how the melting of the soil deforms buildings that are not placed on piles. In the worst case, it comes down to collapsing buildings.
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Climate change: permafrost is melting faster in Russia
Thermosiphons specially cool the soil
To ensure the stability of the soil under the hospital in Yakutsk, thermosiphons were installed next to it for artificial cooling and freezing of the soil. “Further degradation of permafrost will require serious additional financial and human efforts to maintain the functioning of any existing infrastructure,” warns German scientist Matthias Ulrich.
Author: Andrey Gurkov
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