TDA to Provide Feasibility Study Assistance to Russia to Help Promote Renewable Energy Project

For Immediate Release

Washington, DC (11 March 1999) - The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA) will award a $137,500 grant today to the Russian Ministry of Fuels and Energy for a feasibility study on the construction of biomass plants utilizing sawmill waste for power in the Arkhangelsk Region of Russia. At a ceremony today in Moscow, U.S. Ambassador James Collins and Deputy Minister for Fuels and Energy Korsun will sign the grant. Ecotrade Inc. (Ecotrade) of Glendale, California, and International Applied Engineering Inc. (IAE), of Marietta, Georgia, will conduct this study and contribute an additional $137,500 toward its total cost.

Under the auspices of the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory have been helping the Ministry in the implementation of renewable energy projects that displace the use of distillate fuel in remote Russian villages. The primary objective of the proposed feasibility study is to determine the economic and technical feasibility of replacing distillate fuel with local waste biomass in five villages in Arkhangelsk Oblast. The first plant would be installed at the Verkhni-Ozerski village of the Onega Region, followed by plants at Sogra of Verkhni-Toemski Region, Shuiga, Sosnovka, and Novo-Lavella, and all of the of Pinezhskiy Region. Financing for the project is being pursued through the World Bank.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency, an agency of the U.S. Government, helps form mutually beneficial relationships between U.S. private sector companies and overseas project sponsors. Last year, TDA provided assistance in 62 nations around the world.

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