30 June 2021 – Anton Moskvin, Vice President for Marketing and Business Development of Rusatom Overseas, has spoken about ROSATOM’s current projects and plans in hydrogen technology development at the annual business forum held by the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce. The event this year was dedicated to collaboration in environment protection and saw heads of energy and environmental companies. Charles Hendry, the UK’s former Member of Parliament and Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, acted as a moderator of the discussion. The participants of the panel Hydrogen: Fuelling the Green Transition in the Extractive Industry discussed the role of Russian and British businesses in the global race for the leadership in the hydrogen energy sector.
Anton Moskvin has stressed that "today, the leading players of the energy market see a great potential in the development of hydrogen technologies facilitated by technological collaboration and joint projects in the area." "We are now faced with a number of challenges such as launching pilot projects, developing competitive technologies, promoting international cooperation programmes and supporting the development of hydrogen-based economy in Russia. We are already working hard in this area. Rosatom is implementing a large-scale investment programme aimed at the hydrogen energy technology development. We are considering a few pilot projects: there are grounds for the establishment of hydrogen clusters in the Sakhalin and Murmansk Regions. We have plans to produce hydrogen on Sakhalin using natural gas and in the Murmansk Region by employing water electrolysis and the energy generated by the Kola Nuclear Power Plant. Hydrogen could be used both for local purposes and for export to the Asia-Pacific Region and to Europe. We are evaluating several projects of industry and transport decarbonisation in Russia and abroad. All of our current projects are being delivered in cooperation with solid partners, and we are truly looking forward to cooperation with British companies," Anton Moskvin said.
During the event, a few practical issues of the transition to hydrogen economy were raised, specifically ways of hydrogen transportation, current technical challenges, and the prospects of hydrogen as an environmentally clean fuel for transport and production industries. As a result of the debate, the participants have jointly concluded that hydrogen technologies will play an important role in coming to grips with global climate change.