In Russia, companies and authorities are starting to turn to wind power

On Wednesday, the Russian internet giant Yandex announced that it had signed a five-year contract for the supply of energy from Finnish wind farms.

This energy, which will be supplied by the Finnish group Ilmatar Energy from January, is intended to cover 100% of the needs of a Russian group's data center in Finland.

Also on Wednesday, the Russian sovereign wealth fund announced the acquisition by its joint venture with the Finnish energy group Fortum of two wind farms in Kalmykia (southern Russia). This joint venture had already announced in March the construction of a photovoltaic solar power plant in the same region.

If these initiatives involve Finnish companies, it is because Russia has few structures of this type and above all the know-how that goes with it, which it will seek in Europe.

Among the main players in the sector, the nuclear agency Rosatom has launched several large wind farms since 2020 with the Dutch wind turbine manufacturer Lagerwey.

Long in the background, climate change has become a recurring topic in Russian public discourse in recent times. The Russian regions of Siberia and the Arctic are among the most exposed in the world to warming.

They have recorded heat records in recent years, but also gigantic and unusual forest fires.

But Russia also sees positive things in this warming, starting with the development of a maritime trade route linking Europe and Asia via the Arctic, which is more practicable thanks to the melting ice.

Russia is now the 4th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world and Vladimir Putin, after years of hesitation, ratified the Paris climate agreement in October 2019.