A Dormant Giant: Renewable Energy in the Soviet Union and Russia (1970s–Present)

Abstract

In spring 1981 the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party officially sanctioned the start of an “alternative” renewable energy development program in the Soviet Union. Throughout the following decade, some two hundred organizations in the USSR were involved in research and development activities and installing test facilities for solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass as well as tidal wave energy. This article explores the motivations behind this endeavor, earlier Soviet precursors, the main directions and regions within the program, its concrete results, and its fate after the demise of the Soviet Union. Ultimately, these decade-long research activities speak to the high potential of the post-Soviet region for various sorts of renewable energy. Under Putin, this potential and the heritage of the development program have remained mostly unused, mainly due to the priorities of political decision makers who lack any vision for Russia’s development in a decarbonizing world. Only in the very last years before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have renewables appeared to reacquire some momentum in Russia, with prospects of new, “green” energy partnerships between Russia and its Western partners on the horizon. To unearth this long-ignored treasure will be vital for a post-Putin Russia, its partners, and the world climate.