Russia new nuclear power plants add 30 gigawatts of capacity

Russia new nuclear power plants add 30 gigawatts of capacity

Russia new nuclear power plants will add about 30 gigawatts of new capacity, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, said at an August 2026 government meeting on Russia nuclear energy sector. A gigawatt is a unit of power equal to 1 billion watts.

Under the industry's long-term plans, Russia is set to commission about 30 more gigawatts of nuclear power capacity, including small modular reactors.

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia. Source 1.

Small modular reactors are compact nuclear plants built in factories.

38 new reactor units are planned by 2042

The government approved Energy Strategy to 2050 calls for 38 new nuclear reactor units by 2042 and raises nuclear share of generation from 20% today to 25% by 2045, the World Nuclear Association states, a figure World Nuclear News confirms. Russia operates 34 reactor units at 11 plants, World Nuclear News reports. Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear company, expects 13 of those units, accounting for 10 gigawatts of capacity, to be taken out of service over the next 10 years, Rosatom director general Alexei Likhachev said. Rosatom also exports reactors, with 28 units under construction abroad and 17 more under signed agreement, the company reports.

How little solar and wind power Russia plans to use

Coal supplied 18% of Russia electricity generation in 2025 and wind and solar supplied under 1%, specifically 0.6%, the Climate Action Tracker states. A decade before 2025, coal share of generation was 15%. Russia own 2024 approved power plans for 2025 to 2042 set a target generation mix for 2042 of 45% natural gas, 24% nuclear, 15% hydropower, 11% coal and 3.3% wind and solar combined, Climate Action Tracker reports. Coal planned 11% share by 2042 is about 3.7 times wind and solar planned 3.3% share, a calculation MAOWCE made dividing those 2 figures.

The approved Energy Strategy to 2050 target scenario, Russia own most optimistic case for clean energy, aims for a 1.1% share for wind and solar in primary energy consumption by 2050, ten times less than the share of coal alone, the Climate Action Tracker reports. Primary energy consumption counts all energy used across the economy, including heating, industry and transport fuel, not only the mix of fuels that generate electricity, so this ten times figure is a different measure than the 3.7 times gap in the 2042 generation mix above. When all fossil fuels are counted together, they are set to meet 85% of Russia primary energy consumption in 2050, the same strategy states.

Coal production keeps rising even as its power share falls

Coal share of Russia power generation is planned to fall from 18% today to 11% by 2042, yet coal mined for every use, including export, is planned to keep growing every measured year through 2050, the strategy states. Russia set national coal production targets of more than 530 million tons by 2030, more than 595 million tons by 2036 and more than 662 million tons by 2050, Enerdata reports, from the strategy approved 16 April 2025. Coal power share can fall while the tonnage mined keeps rising because generation and production are different totals, coal burned domestically for electricity is only part of what the country mines, and the rest goes to industry, heating and export.