Russian solar module producer and project developer Hevel Solar, a joint venture between Russian industrial conglomerate Renova Group and nanotechnologies provider JSC Rusnano, has announced the completion of a 15 MW solar plant in the Saratov region, southern Russia.
The RUB 1.5 billion ($25.3 million) plant was built by Hevel’s Avelar unit in the Pugachevsky district. Construction started in May.
Hevel said that the project will be the first of three large-scale projects it plans to build in the region. Another 5 MW plant is expected to come online in the Ershov district by the end of this year. The company will build another 10 MW in 2018. It will also build a 15 MW solar park in the Novouzensk district next year.
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In early July, Hevel also announced that it had doubled its production capacity at its Novocheboksarsk solar module factory to 160 MW, following the addition of heterojunction solar module lines. The expanded capacity is enough to meet 50% of Russia's domestic solar demand, Hevel said, extending the firm’s stranglehold of the Russian PV market.
Hevel aims to develop more than 500 MW of solar by 2020. Meanwhile, Russia’s 2030 solar target stands at 2.6 GW.
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It is significant that Saratov is a standard oblast, without the additional autonomy enjoyed by the autonomous ethnic republics that have led Russia’s limited solar deployments. If the economics and politics work in Saratov, they should work in many other places.