OREANDA-NEWS. July 09, 2010. "The company’s goals of economic and environmental development are inextricably linked", Russian Railways Senior Vice President Valentin Gapanovich said during his speech at the Second Global Rail Freight Conference in St Petersburg, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.    

He said that Russian Railways is the largest corporate energy consumer in Russia, so a key priority for the company is energy saving and improving energy efficiency, as the most important aspect of environmental policy.

"From the time of the company’s founding six years ago, harmful atmospheric emissions have been brought down by 40%, and emissions of contaminated wastewater have been reduced by 63%", Gapanovich said.

Russian Railways is currently developing modern energy-efficient types of rolling stock. In line with the Russian Energy Strategy, the company has set a goal of replacing up to 30% of diesel fuel used in internal combustion engine-powered locomotives with natural gas by 2030.

In particular, the company has created the first mainline gas turbine-electric freight locomotive GT1-001, with maximum power output of 8,300 kW.

The high traction capacity of the turbine-electric locomotive allows it to pull a train of 15,000 tons, which is a world record for an internal combustion engine-powered locomotive with a single prime mover. Emission levels from the gas turbine prime mover is more than five times lower than the requirements for diesel under the EU directive for 2012, while the noise level meets Russian state requirements.

The life-cycle cost of the turbine-electric locomotive is almost 20% lower than that of a mainline diesel locomotive. The use of cryogenic technology in the locomotive can also be applied to other forms of transport.

According to expert estimates, the reduction in specific energy consumption for train traction will cause a decline in greenhouse gas emissions from 2010 to 2015 of more than 12 million tons.

Russian Railways has adopted and is carrying out its Environmental Strategy up to 2015 with an outlook up to 2030. The document foresees a reduction in the company’s negative environmental impact by 35% by 2015, and by 70% by 2030. This strategy was singled out by the Russian Natural Resources Ministry as the best environmental project of 2008.

As part of its Environmental Strategy, the company has created a range of environmental control measures over operations, covering the entire Russian railway network. These include 120 stationary and mobile environmental laboratories, and 90 ecological monitoring points at locomotive depots. All fuel-powered locomotives undergo compulsory environmental standard tests after engine repairs.

In the first year after its founding, Russian Railways drew up and adopted its Energy Strategy up to 2010 with an outlook up to 2020, and updated it in 2008 in view of the changing economic situation.

As a result of this strategy, the energy efficiency of the transport process has reached the highest level in the history of Russia’s rail network. Since 2004, the energy consumption of goods transport has declined by 4.2%, and 1.3 billion kWh has been saved, along with more than 100,000 tons of diesel. This means that during this period, Russia’s railway network has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 625,000 tons each year.