Anatoly Chubais said solar power in Russia is still underdeveloped, but the polysilicon project in Usolye Sibirskoye could begin creating a domestic cluster in this field. Rosnano will invest 7.5 billion rubles in it and expects not only the domestic market but also exports thanks to competitive advantages, including low raw material costs. Chubais called the project one of the most promising and linked it to the future development of solar panel production in Russia.
Unlike other countries, solar energy is not developed in Russia. This was stated by the chairman of the board of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, Anatoly Chubais, during a videoconference organized by the IAA “Teleinform” together with the Moscow Club of Regional Journalism. The production of polycrystalline silicon in Usolye-Sibirskoye will be the starting point for creating a solar energy cluster in Russia.- We plan to take this production to export, - Anatoly Chubais explained. – We have competitive advantages that will make our products in demand on the global market, including through production in Usolye-Sibirskoye. For example, we are counting on the low cost of the raw materials produced.
The polycrystalline silicon production complex, which is planned to be created in Usolye-Sibirskoye, is one of the large-scale projects being implemented in Russia by the state corporation Rosnano. The corporation is investing 7.5 billion rubles in the implementation of this project. The cooperation agreement between Rosnano, the company NITOL, and Irkutsk State Technical University was signed in February 2009.
Anatoly Chubais highly praised this project. “I believe it has very serious prospects,” he said. – We are being criticized for planning to engage in raw-material processing, that is, to produce raw materials for solar batteries. They say that there are no consumers of such energy in Russia today, but tomorrow there will be. And we have a unique project for the production of solar batteries.”