Sakhalin to launch five pilot projects to use hydrogen in energy, transport by mid-2025

MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) - Sakhalin Region will launch five pilot projects involving the use of hydrogen in energy and transport by the middle of 2025, the chairman of the regional government, Alexei Belik said at a meeting of the Far East Federal District Council chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev.

Belik presented the latest technology projects at the meeting, Trutnev's press service reported.

"One of them is the creation of a hydrogen cluster. A hydrogen testing ground was opened in July of this year as part of the creation of a hydrogen engineering center, and five pilot areas to fine-tune technology to produce, store, transport and use hydrogen in energy and transport will be launched by the middle of 2025," the press release said.

The Russian government selected Sakhalin to be the pilot region for developing hydrogen technologies. The island now has an Eastern Hydrogen Cluster, which includes a testing ground for developing hydrogen technologies and testing Russian equipment, such as hydrogen fueling stations for transport and hydrogen-fueled power generation systems. The testing ground is based at the Special Design Bureau of Marine Research Automation Tools (SKB SAMI) of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Trutnev, who serves as the Russian president's envoy to the Far East Federal District, spoke about the district's technological development at the council meeting and mentioned the Innovation Science and Technology Center on Russky Island (Russky ISTC), the Voskhod venture capital fund and technology projects in the Patrioticheskaya priority development area.

Far East and Arctic Development Minister Alexei Chekunkov said his ministry, working with the Science and Higher Education Ministry and local companies, is exploring possibilities for improving conditions to attract researchers and engineers to the Far East.

"In 2025, a pilot area for the first residents will be launched at the Russky innovation center and we will begin construction of the main complex with an area of more than 110,000 square meters. The areas of the ISTC's work will be in tune with global trends in the development of technology, which are biotechnology, the world's oceans and information technology," Chekunkov said.