The pellet production and consumption is future topic for Russia, said the head of the Leningrad region Valery Serdukov

It was said to the reporter of the magazine The BIOENERGY INTERNATIONAL.RUSSIA and the INFOBIO on 14 th of October in Saint-Petersburg press-conference. At the same time the Leningrad region government is looking for opportunities to help to finish the construction of the future biggest European pellet mill Vyborgskaya Cellulose. They plan to subsidize the construction of this plant.

“The production of pellets from wood waste and round wood is very expensive. We can’t calculate the prime-costs of these pellets in Vyborgskaya Cellulose so far”, - said the governor of Leningrad region Valery Serdukov.
The pellet mill in pos. Sovetsky announced that they start the pellet production in August 2010… However, they are still under construction. The new open day is announced as December 2010. The production capacity of this plant is about 1 000 000 tons of pellets per year. All produced pellets will be exported to Europe.
There are about 10 pellet plants in Leningrad region at the moment. All their pellets are exported to Europe.
At the same time Leningrad region is realizing the gasification program. “However we examine the areas where gas construction is expensive and offer to use pellets and other biofuels”, - said Mr. Serdukov.
How profitable to use pellets in Leningrad region? It should calculated, told Mr. Serdukov.
“I would like to point that the consumption of pellets in European Union is subsidized by federal governments”, - pointer the head of Leningrad region.
It is very important that Russian governors started to speak about biofuels and pellets. To subsidize the construction of pellet mills in Russia is very important. The Vyborgskaya Cellulose, for example, will be one the biggest tax payers in the area.
It is pity that pellets are exported from Russia mostly, but maybe one day the situation will be changed and we will have a huge number of biofuel power stations in Russia…