Kazakhstan to establish “future energy” center
By Aynur Jafarova
Kazakhstan will establish a center, tasked with studying and utilizing the best global approaches in search and creation of energy of the future, Environment and Water Resources Minister Nurlan Kapparov said on February 4.
Kapparov said the need to create such an institution in Kazakhstan is indisputable, since it will allow understanding the long-term prospects for energy development, minimizing risks and securing energy resources of the country.
"One of the options is the establishment of the institute on the basis of the Center for Energy Studies, operating under Nazarbayev University and having a finished material and technical base, laboratories, personnel structure, and established mechanism to attract world-renowned scientists," the minister said.
Kapparov also offered two possible approaches to determining the institute's specialization.
"The first approach envisages the search of fundamentally new forms of energy based on thermonuclear synthesis and so on. The second approach envisages the study of development issues of already known renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and new forms of energy, as well as issues related to further improve of existing technologies, generation, storage and transportation of energy," Kapparov said.
The minister also noted Kazakhstan plans to create an interdepartmental working group by involving representatives of interested organizations to develop a concrete action plan for the organization, financing, and determining the structure of the institute.
Renewable energy, commonly called alternative energy, is an alternative to fossil fuels, and comes from natural sources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished.
Experts believe that Kazakhstan has to turn to alternative energy sources by 2030, as the traditional sources are being exhausted and their prices are on the rise. They say about 20-30 percent of the domestically consumed energy can be saved by using alternative energy.
Kazakhstan viewed by the CIS countries as a promising market for wind and solar energy plans to commission more than 30 renewable energy facilities by 2020.
The share of alternative and renewable energy in the energy basket of Kazakhstan will reach 50 percent by 2050. Today, about 85 percent of Kazakhstan's electricity comes from coal-fired power plants and close to 9 percent from hydroelectric power plants.