Experts spoke about the balance in the energy sector and the fork in the road for Russia

Today, both Russia and the world are facing a fork in the road, where it is necessary to choose which direction the energy sector will go, Ilya Voskoboinikov, director of the Center for Productivity Research at the Higher School of Economics Research Institute, said on RBC.

"The demand for energy is growing, and the sources of this demand are not only traditional industries, but also, say, artificial intelligence, which places very different demands on energy consumption. The energy supply must adjust. We are all interested in creating new ones and generating more energy, but the question is, what should this generation be? Today's world and energy are not only about economics, but also about ecology and security," the expert noted.

Alexander Shirov, Director of the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, stressed that "indeed, economics and energy are at a certain crossroads." "We see the regionalization and fragmentation of the global economy," he said, adding that Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, speaking at the SPIEF, pointed out the need to find a balance to choose the direction of economic and energy development. This balance should be based on "criteria of safety and energy comfort, in short, sustainable economic development for both developed and developing countries," Shirov continued.

He stated that the right balance between traditional fuel and other sources is needed. "We are not saying that it is necessary, so to speak, to go towards exclusively fossil fuels or exclusively renewable energy sources. The criterion is the level of economic development," the expert said.

The expert suggested that an increase in the share of nuclear energy in the generation structure in both Russia and the world is a trend for the next ten to twenty years.

Valery Andrianov, Associate Professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, agrees that there should be a reasonable balance between new and traditional energy sources. "At the same time, "new" does not necessarily mean solar and wind energy, which European countries have so unconditionally relied on. It's not for nothing that the report analyzes all possible options, including, let's say, options from the distant future — the use of space energy, and shows that so far, there really is no exact and 100% alternative. This is a topic for further scientific research," the expert said.