Prospects for reducing the negative anthropogenic impact on the environment as a result of the development of renewable energy in the Russian regions

The publication analyzes the anthropogenic impact of renewable (alternative) energy on the environment by assessing its specific material intensity. A specific feature of alternative energy, there is practically no emissions and discharges into the environment, however, the construction of power plants and their operation can significantly change the existing material flows in the geographic shell of the Earth, which in the future inevitably leads to the degradation of natural geosystems. This requires the use of a special criterion for assessing the material intensity of the specified sector of the economy. To analyze the material intensity, the criterion of total Material Input - numbers was used, which allows the entire set of natural resources to be presented as a single value, and thus to compare the energy operating on fossil fuels and power plants of renewable energy. At this point in time, the share of alternative energy in the total energy balance of the country is small, amounting to 0.14%, however, a number of scenarios assume its significant increase in the future period of time. The study was based on a hypothetical scenario of complete replacement of traditional energy with alternative energy sources. It has been established that this will reduce the level of material intensity of the Russian energy sector by 6.93 times. In 31 Russian regions, this value will be higher than the national average, and the reduction in the specific material intensity of the industry will reach values from 7.00 to 32.67 times, which will significantly reduce the anthropogenic impact of this economic sector on natural geosystems. A particularly high effect is expected in the regions with developed coal energy and included in the Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern federal districts. The conclusion is that the replacement of traditional energy with alternative energy will significantly reduce the anthropogenic impact of this sector of the economy due to a decrease in material intensity.