Innovation in Russian District Heating: Opportunities, Barriers, Mechanisms

Abstract

Contrary to the advanced countries, heat energy sector in Russia hardly embraces radical innovations. Moscow heat supply system, the most innovative comparing to that of other Russian cities, is no exception. It focuses on incremental innovations while lagging in radical innovations in cogeneration, trigeneration etc. The paper considers the reasons for such a situation, compares Russian and European heating markets and corporate strategies, provides recommendations for supporting the innovative development of Russian heating companies. vol. 8, no 3, heat generation; heat supply; power generation; open innovation; labor productivity; knowledge managementThe paper was prepared within the framework of the project «Establishing the system of tools for the embedding outputs of industry S&T forecasts into the preparation and revision of the Russian Long-term S&T Foresight», supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (a unique identifier of research work RFMEFIC CC14X0002).*

Thermal Conductivity of Insulation Material: Effect of Moisture Content and Wet-Drying Cycle

“…The thermal insulation materials play an important role in the energy saving of district heating systems and the building sector and generally are widely used in many industries such as petrochemical, power engineering, mechanical engineering, etc. District heating in Russia requires about 50% of all energy supplied to buildings [1] and about 44% of the world's all heat production capacity [2], therefore there is a great potential for energy savings. There is also greater potential for energy savings in district heating in heat distribution in Europe [3].…”

The potential for reducing TPP water consumption through the use of heat pumps

“…The water strategy of the Russian Federation for the period until 2020 [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] means improving the rationality of the use of water resources. Main aim way to achieve this goal is to reduce water losses during transportation, to decrease specific water consumption in technological processes through the use of more efficient production technologies and to make consumption for household needs less [13][14][15][16][17][18].…”