International science station to open at Yamal in 2022

MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. A science station dubbed "Snezhinka," tasked with international research, including renewable energy, will begin operating in the Yamalo-Nenets Region in 2022, says Yury Vasilyev, Executive Director of the Scientific and Technological Center for Autonomous Energy under the Institute of Arctic Technology of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). "This platform is envisioned as interdisciplinary and wide. We are establishing the possibility of placing equipment for testing technologies that are completely unrelated to energy: telecommunications, medicine, the Internet of Things, and a smart community. We do not limit this list to our foreign colleagues," Vasilyev said at a press conference Monday. According to the Executive Director, the station, comprised of several dome modules, will run on renewable energy, mostly with the help of windmills, supported by solar panels during the summer. Besides, the electrolysis will generate hydrogen that will be used to heat up the station in the absence of sun and wind. The station’s construction is expected to cost approximately 10-12 billion euro. The station will also conduct research on the environment and climate change in Arctic Council countries, says Nikolay Korchunov, Ambassador-at-large and Representative of the Russian Federation in the Arctic Council. "This project’s concept meets the principles we laid down in the foundation of Russia’s chairmanship in the Council in 2021-2023, where sustainable development will be one of the key directions. This is why Russia submitted this project for review to the Arctic Council’s working group on sustainable development last month," Korchunov added. Read more