Danish renewable energy investment company Copenhagen Offshore Partners plans to lease the northern Kuril island of Shumshu. The Governor of the Sakhalin Region Valery Limarenko told about this. According to him, investments in this project can range from $ 2 to 2.5 billion.
“The Danes want to produce annually 1.5 GW of wind energy, 120 thousand tons of hydrogen and sell it to Japan. These are primordially Russian islands, so there are no obstacles to building long-term trade relations in the field of hydrogen production and hydrogen energy “, – said Mr. Limarenko in an interview with RBC.
The representatives of the company explained their desire to rent the Shumshu island by the fact that the wind there is better for the construction of power generation. The investor asked to provide land for exploration in order to put meters there for the electric park, etc. However, this does not mean that the project will be accurately implemented. Serious negotiations are underway now, and the governor is reporting this to the country’s leadership.
Svetlana Litvinova, press secretary of the Governor of the Sakhalin Region, in an interview with RBC, explained that Copenhagen Offshore Partners is really interested in implementing a project for the production of hydrogen using wind energy in Shumshu. According to her, this is not about renting the whole island. “The issue of using only a part of the land for the implementation of the project is being considered. It is also planned to create a museum on Shumshu, ”said Mrs. Litvinova. She explained that the parties are now at the stage of negotiations on a hydrogen project. In order to proceed to concrete actions, it is necessary to go through a number of procedures on the possibilities of using the land plot, to obtain data on wind characteristics, the availability of the required volume of water, added the press secretary of the Governor of the Sakhalin Region.
Shumshu Island is one of the islands in the northern group of the Kuril Islands. It is located 11 km from Kamchatka and 2 km from the nearest inhabited Kuril island, Paramushir. The name of the island comes from the Ainu language, which means “good island”. Today Shumshu is generally uninhabited: all villages are closed there. In total, about 7-8 people live on the island – these are the keepers of two lighthouses.
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