Novawind to build wind farm on Sakhalin, develop wind turbines for Arctic

NOVOSIBIRSK. Aug 25 (Interfax) - Novawind, the wind power division of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, plans to build a wind farm on Sakhalin Island, the company's deputy CEO, Viktor Svistunov said on Friday.

"We plan to build a wind farm on Sakhalin. Survey work is now being done. We've set up a wind measurement system, meaning we're looking to expand the geography of our presence," Svistunov told reporters at the Tekhnoprom-2023 forum in Novosibirsk.

"The construction of every wind farm is tens of billions of rubles," he added.

The company is now working on wind generation in southern Russia, Svistunov said. The company won projects totaling 1.7 GW in tenders, "about 900 MW [of which] are already built wind farms," he said.

He said "our wind farms are primarily concentrated in Stavropol Territory and Rostov Region because of geography in terms of the potential of Russia's south, Russia's south is very attractive, the area between the Don and Volga rivers is extremely attractive."

Svistunov also said that Novawind has acquired a license to manufacture direct drive wind farms and has set up production of them at its plant in Russia. The company is also considering producing small-capacity wind turbines in Russia for the Arctic, he said.

"Putting up our standard wind turbine, a tower with a height of 100 meters, blade of 9 tonnes and 49 meters there, putting up such machines in the Arctic is very problematic logistically, so of course we will think about building machines of a smaller class," Svistunov said.