Russian government demands domestic production of all turbine components

The country’s industry and trade ministry will force investors that want to produce wind turbines in the Russian Federation to source all key components in Russia, including generators and automated control systems. 

Following approval, the ministry will announce a competition among investors to agree a special investment contract (SPIC 2.0).

The winner will invest in the launch of a manufacturing facility in Russia, using foreign technology, in exchange for tax incentives. 

Under previous rules, nacelles, blades and hubs had to be produced in the Russian Federation, while generators with a capacity of 4.5MW or more and automated control systems could be produced outside the country. 

According to Russian media reports, potential bidders for the SPIC 2.0 contracts include Novawind, part of Rosatom, Power Machines and Fortum, all of which are negotiating with Chinese vendors.

Grigoriy Nazarov, chief executive of Novawind, said the firm was negotiating with “leading Chinese manufacturers” and that, since 2022, the company’s manufacturing was “concentrated in a Russian legal entity”.

Fortum has the largest portfolio of wind farm projects in the Russian Federation, at around 1.65GW.

But the company will not be able to enter the competition under the new rules because it wanted to produce only a proportion of its components in the country, using Dongfang technology.