: Our energy tomorrow

Innovation in the energy sector: RVK seminar

What will be the energy in the coming decades? Will the world encounter a global energy crisis? These issues for Russia, the main export products of which are today energy, are far from idle. From here, another question directly follows - what energy to develop and how?

Energy experts and specialists in venture business in the framework of the seminar “Technological vectors in energy and prospects for venture technological business”, organized by the Russian Venture Company, tried to answer the last question.

“All modern energy, with the exception of, possibly nuclear energy, in one form or another, is the exploitation of the stored solar energy stored in this sense, everything rests on several such primitive factors. The first is the efficiency of solar energy processing through the relevant sources. The second is the possibility of accumulation, the third is the possibility of transportation, ”the Director General of the RVC Igor Agamirzyan described the problem field.

“All the energy needs of Europe are provided if it is built by heat solar power plants, if I remember correctly, 0.3% of the Sahara desert area,” Agamirzyan gave an example, noting that the problem of transporting this energy would come back further.

In his opinion, "in a fairly suffering enough we can live in a very different world in organizing methods for working with energy." However, in Russia, what is called alternative energy is underestimated from the point of view of political importance, Agamirzyan believes. The main reason is seen in lobbying: "The corresponding lobby is very interested so that the necessary mechanisms and technologies do not arise."

Accordingly, the problem of the development of the new energy is based on the circumstance almost irresistible today: oil and gas companies are not invested in the "energy of the future" due to the monopoly position in the market. Unlike transnational oil and gas corporations, which are more or less actively invest in alternative energy to have achievements if/when the market requires them to produce “new types” of energy. The problem is that in investment programs of Russian oil and gas companies, emphasis is on research and design developments. And this is far from a market product, but only the first step in the process of its appearance.

The venture funds could be another mechanism to finance new energy. Some projects according to this scheme are already working. “Over the past three years, we have made four projects in the field of energy - 2 projects in the field of fluid transformation and 2 projects in the field of alternative sources, I include wave power plants. And we managed to find the current venture structures in Russia, ready to invest from 2 to 20 million euros. They already exist, ”said Andrei Zotov from the company atg -consulting, noting that of the four projects, one was successful.

The reason for the failure of most venture projects in the "Energy of the Future" is the same. “You can make a wonderful wave power station or an extraordinary system built on other physical principles than that of Fisher -Tropsha, it will not be bought, because the traditional approach that has developed in the industry does not require these innovations,” Zotov complained.

Partly the problem is the habit, says Igor Agamirzyan. “There is an order of the president, which at the last meeting of the modernization commission was signed. It says about the need to develop mechanisms that would allow the participation of state -owned companies in venture funds to count on an article of innovative development, ”he said. And in the order it is said about the elimination of barriers in this area. And here, according to Agamirzyan, a real embarrassment turned out: “When they began to figure it out, it turned out that from the point of view of the legislative and norming there is nothing impedeable. This is actually a pure psychology and tradition, the habit of generally believed that this is impossible. ” That is - according to the law, it is possible to invest in venture funds to companies, only they do not.

On the path of venture financing - that in the energy sector, that in any other, there are also specific conditions for doing business in Russia and the distribution of profits by the sectors of the economy. The speaker, director of the Institute of Energy and Finance, Vladimir Feigin, retold his conversation with the Russian businessman. He doubted to invest him in venture or real estate: “Venture is a risky thing, but if you build it correctly, it gives an average of 30-40% per annum. Everyone knows this figure. I can easily earn these 40% at real estate without risk. ” “So far, we have such an environment in which it is easy to earn 30-40 percent per year, given the competitiveness, corruptivity, anything else, there is nothing else, and there is no need to do anything,” Feigin concluded.

In this sense, the global financial crisis rendered a service to the Russian venture business. “A huge achievement with us in recent years is that as a result of the crisis of 2008-2009, stagnation in the real estate market began. Now it is not to earn a lot of interest on it, and most likely it will never be possible to earn these 30-40 percent. Therefore, it is likely that the money went, and these funds are really created today for the money that left the real estate market, because there is nothing more to look for, ”says Igor Agamirzyan. So theoretically it is time to invest in new technologies, including new energy.

See also: Energy: Ilya Ponomarev Technologies and Innovations: Energy - a good base for further innovative construction Maxim Shekhovtsov: The most risky alternative ideas appear in new companies Academician Anatoly Dmitrievsky: the Center for Innovation in the Energy will be in Russia Nikita Maslennikov: the farther the more energy companies will be the demand for the demand for innovation