RusHydro, the Russian hydro power company, listed its shares in London today, and set out its vision of how huge volumes of electricity could be exported to meet China’s growing energy needs.
In many ways, hydro power is the best of all energy sources: carbon free, proven technology, long-lived and with very low marginal cost. The problem is that there are not enough suitable rivers. The potential of hydro power is strictly limited by geography, and in most western countries all the suitable sites have been used. As a result, large-scale hydro has very little potential for growth.
In emerging economies, however, the position can be very different. Where France and Germany have used up about 95 per cent of their hydro power potential, and the US 82 per cent, Russia has used just 19 per cent of its potential. In Russia’s far east, including east Siberia, the scope for development is even greater. That creates a huge opportunity to export Russian electricity to China. There are, however, some daunting challenges to be overcome.
