The sun will come to Skalistogorsk

And it will be the Russian sun

In the blessed time of socialist realism, a production novel was in fashion. His signs-traffic: optimistically smoking factory pipes at the beginning-as a symbol of industrial progress, and at the end-rays of the breaking sun, falling on the happy faces of the workers. I will try myself in the genre of production report, behind which the new American Caprevalism will see.

The city of Pueblo, Colorado, Rocky Mountains. One of the oldest enterprises is the former “Colorado fuel and iron”, and now-completely in Nachery-“Scalistogorsky Staliliteic Combine”. Founded in 1881.

At one time they said that the car created America. The American West created rails. They tied this region of the last border with the whole country. All this steel and rails were cast at this factory.

Around the powerful center of ferrous metallurgy grew up very quickly. How did his heart knock? It is difficult, and, as the history of the labor movement shows, sometimes tragically. The clashes of labor and capital used to end in blood - the local account of the victims is going on for many dozens. It was, of course, at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Today, more than a thousand people work at the plant. A few decades ago, the blanks were extinguished. Steel is melted from scrap metal. Electric energy (and the plant is the largest consumer in the state) comes with a nearby power plant operating on coal from wioming. Otherwise, it is easy to finish the picture.

This is a saying.

The tale is that the plant changes energy orientation. At his side, he builds a power plant "Sunny Tolut". As the name is clear, it will work on the energy of the sun. This will be one of the largest power plants in this kind.

As a result, Skalistogorsk will be the first metallurgical plant in the world to operate on solar energy.

According to the company President James Herald, the plant "will produce the greenest steel and the most green steel products in the world."

Little recognition. Just in this newspaper, my report with the UN General Assembly has been published, which was to a large extent devoted to the topic of struggle with climate changes, the vital need to move to the Green Planet and so on. And here is such a card in the hands. The story is wonderful in many respects. And - I’m ready to beat the congestion - with an absolutely unexpected ending.

In the meantime, details.

The plant operates around the clock - unlike the power plant. At night, as you know, you can fly in the sun, but not generate solar energy. In the daily balance of electricity, the deficit will be covered by revenues from the state power grid, in turn, at the peak of generation, excess electricity will go in the opposite direction. In the annual calculation, its own solar power plant will provide 95 percent of the factory need.

At the same time, the power plant with which the plant receives additional energy, its green ambitions. In addition to the bright sun, strong winds blow in Colorado - and just when the batteries lack the sun. So the power plant goes to wind turbines.

And another curious detail. Sunny panels on the "Sunny Stolbings" will be installed by the profile company Lightsource BP. This, as it is easy to understand, is the daughter of an oil giant BP.

Green energy - the antid is and competitor of fossil fuel. But, it turns out, connections, and even completely legal, are also possible, since such daughters are born.

The policy intersects with the technology. President Trump Ecology worries last. The governor of Colorado, like a number of other democrats, often defiantly ignore retrograde signals, or even Washington teams. They have their own course.

It would be naive to believe that in the motivation of the owners of the enterprise, the ecology determines everything. Green Street of a Solar Power Plant opened an economic calculation. The price of the project according to the laws of the state of Colorado is not disclosed. However, the cost of large -scale solar generation has sharply declined in recent years. Now she receives federal subsidies that will be in stages. But, apparently, the calculation showed that in a long -term plan it is a profitable strategy.

It seems that the owners of Skalistogorsk showed enviable foresight.

But who are they? It's time to name the company's name completely.

Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel Mill. The first word does not need translation: Evraz.

Suddenly - in our reality today. You can say fantastically. Since 2007, the Scalistogorsky Steel Plant belongs to Evraz.

“The symbol of wilds of the unithesized capitalism of the beginning of the twentieth century was at the beginning of the 21st century a symbol of environmental progress,” writes the ecological observer of New York Times, Justin Gillis.

Good assessment.

And in the end it completely flows into a lyrical trance:

“As I went deep into the womb of the old plant, looking at the walls and signs from the 19th century, I felt nearby the ghosts of immigrants who arrived here to build America. The descendants of some of them are now working at this factory. And then I noticed something else. Almost from any point in the old plant, one could see the sky and how the sun shines. ”

I promised you the sun. The pipes stop smoking. The sun sparkles brighter. In America - Russian rays.