**5. Applications for Eco-Design of Energy Systems and Energy Policy: The Case of Renewable Energy in Russia**

Therefore, despite the incomplete data and the presence of significant uncertainties, the available studies of the entire life cycle of solar and wind energy plants allow us to draw several general conclusions regarding the eco-design of their production systems. Firstly, recycling is much more preferable from an environmental point of view than disposal, so it must be foreseen (including in the organizational and regulatory aspects) at the earliest stages of development of the renewable energy technologies. Secondly, when choosing a location for solar and wind energy plants, it is necessary to take into account not only the climatic and infrastructural conditions but also the distance from the place of the proposed location of the recycling enterprises.

Let us examine how this conclusion can be applied to the improvement of the eco-design of solar and wind energy projects in Russia. The literature review shows that there has been little discussion on the problem of RES capacity recycling in this country [96]. A reasonable explanation of this knowledge gap is an initial stage of development of wind and solar energy. To date, the most developed type of renewable energy in Russia is solar. In 2019, the volume of electricity generated by solar stations in Russia amounted to 850.38 MWh, while wind stations contributed only 209.84 MWh. Other types of renewable sources are represented by small hydropower plants (48.9 MWh), biogas plants (28 MWh), biomass and waste power plants (43.5 MWh), and landfill gas (9.6 MWh).

The system of government incentives for renewable energy in Russia stimulates not only the construction of new renewable energy plants but also the development of national manufacturers of solar panels and wind turbines. Due to these incentives, Hevel (the largest producer of silicon heterostructured solar modules in Russia) and NovaWind JSC (the Rosatom division responsible for wind energy projects) are already successfully operating on the Russian market.

Hevel currently manages 1145.5 MW of solar projects that are scattered throughout southern Siberia, the Volga region, the North Caucasus, and the Far East (Figure 5). The production unit of the company is located in the city of Novocheboksarsk, the Republic of Chuvashia. Thus, the distance between the manufacturer and the most remote solar energy facility is more than 7500 km.

**Figure 5.** The locations of solar projects under Hevel management (single solar plants are marked with green color; solar plants as a part of thermal power plants are marked with grey color).

At the time it was launched in 2015, the plant's production capacity was only 90 MW per year; by 2019, it had already increased to 300 MW per year. The company plans to implement several large solar projects not only in Russia but also in Kazakhstan and further increase production to strengthen its position in the market and reduce production costs due to the economies of scale, learning-by-doing, and learning-by-researching [97,98]. Following this development strategy will likely lead to the construction of an increasing number of solar power plants, including ones at a considerable distance from the place of direct production.

Such an approach in the future can significantly complicate the development of the recycling of solar modules, making it environmentally and economically impractical due to the need to transport old modules over long distances. A more feasible solution, which allows optimizing the design of the production system even at this stage in the development of solar energy, could be the development of a network of Hevel subsidiaries in the regions with the greatest natural and infrastructural potential for solar generation. Furthermore, it is necessary to begin the development of technologies for the production of thin-film modules, the environmental friendliness of which, over the entire life cycle, exceeds the ecology parameters of the silicon modules.

NovaWind JSC was founded in 2017 as a system integrator of all wind projects launched at this point in Russia. The technology partner of the company is Dutch company Lagerwey. The production units of the company are located in the city of Volgodonsk, Rostov Region. Shortly, the company plans to reach a production capacity of 96 turbines per year. The first Adygea Wind Farm project, with a total capacity of 150 MW (60 wind turbines), was successfully launched in early March 2020. In addition, the implementation of several large-scale wind projects in the Stavropol and Krasnodar territories in the Rostov and Volgograd regions is planned for the next two years. All these regions are part of the Southern Federal District and border each other, so the logistics of wind projects can be considered optimal, from both economic and environmental points of view.

The first NovaWind JSC wind projects include the construction of wind farms using L100 direct-drive wind turbines with a capacity of 2.5 MW. The program is already under development for the start of the production of turbines with a high power of 4.5 MW. Since the negative impact of powerful turbines on the environment throughout the life cycle is greater than the impact of medium-power turbines, when developing such projects, special attention should be paid to the transportation of the large-sized parts of the turbines, as well as to ensure the possibility of their subsequent disposal.
