21 january 2013

Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich chairs a meeting of the Working Group on Biotechnology Development

Participants:

Participants in the meeting noted Russia’s considerable potential in the global bioenergy market and discussed the prospects for the creation and development of the domestic market for bioenergy and biofuels.

The meeting examined the issue of expanding heat and electricity generation from renewable wood sources, as well as the use of bioengineering technologies for addressing energy supply issues in rural, remote and inaccessible areas. The meeting also focused on the specifics of regulating production of absolute industrial alcohol during the manufacture of biofuels.

After the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister instructed the federal executive authorities to draft proposals on the legal regulation of sales and purchases of ethanol produced from biomass. Arkady Dvorkovich emphasised that it was inadmissible to use currently available croplands which grow agricultural produce for purposes other than manufacturing ethanol from biomass.

In an effort to encourage facilities generating heat and electricity to convert to potentially cost-effective biofuels, the Deputy Prime Minister instructed the relevant agencies to examine the regulatory mechanism on the tariff regulation of these facilities and to propose measures to make it possible to provide incentives for the use of wood and biomass sources of energy.

Arkady Dvorkovich also instructed the relevant agencies to assess the current demand for research and development projects regarding biomass processing and its use by the energy sector.

An instruction was also issued to assess the human resources required by the bioengineering industry and to submit proposals on improving the quality of training programmes.