The usage of renewable energy sources in the Arctic: the role of public-private partnership

Sustainable development of the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation requires reliable energy supply, which is possible to achieve through searching for new environmentally clean energy sources. The Russian part of the Arctic possesses a great potential of renewable energy sources (RES), and it has required prerequisites for their accelerated development. In these conditions, the transition to renewable energy sources allows not only the provision of required energy resources to the region, supplement and partial substitution of the usage of expensive imported fuel, but the minimization of environmental damage and the preservation of natural resources for future generations. In this article, problems and prospects of the renewable energy usage in the energy system of the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation are systemized and presented. On the basis of the content analysis, the successful experience of their application in the Russian part of the Arctic is summarized, and the tasks of their promotion on these territories are shown. Besides, pros and cons of the renewable energy sources usage in the economy of the Arctic regions are defined. It is revealed that one of the most acute problems of the further development of the RES potential is related to the attraction of funding for “green” energy projects. To solve this problem, we propose the activation of cooperation between the state and business through the development of public-private partnership. We present the specifics of public-private partnership in the field of non-traditional energy and justify the importance of its application for the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation. The scientific novelty of the research is the development of theoretical provisions aimed at the cooperation between government authorities, business structures, and modern society in solving energy issues of the Russian Arctic with the goal of the sustainable development of its territories. The practical relevance of the study is the development of conditions for applying the public-private partnership mechanism to the solution of the priority objectives related to the usage of renewable energy sources in the Arctic region.