Kazakhstan to inaugurate 106 renewable energy facilities
By Aynur Karimova
Kazakhstan plans to commission 106 facilities to generate energy from renewable energy sources by late 2020, according to the country’s Energy Ministry.
The country will commission 28 solar power plants with a capacity of 713.5 megawatts in Almaty, Zhambyl, Atyrau, Karaganda, Kyzylorda, South Kazakhstan and Mangistau provinces, the ministry told Trend.
The total capacity of these facilities will amount to around
3.055 megawatts.
The ministry said all these projects are being implemented with
foreign funds and are not financed from the state budget.
As part of the concept for transition of Kazakhstan to “green
economy,” the volume of electricity generated from the renewable
energy sources is planned to reach 3 percent of the total volume of
electricity by 2020 and 10 percent by 2030.
The Energy Ministry also added that under the law “Support for use
of renewable energy sources,” fixed tariffs for the electricity
generated from the renewable energy sources have been approved
since 2014 for 15 years.
The tariffs for the electricity generated by wind farms were set at
22.68 tenges ($1 = 307.314 tenges) per kilowatt hours; solar power
plants – 34.61 tenges; small hydro power plants – 16.71 tenges; and
biogas plants – 32.23 tenges per kilowatt hours.
The approved fixed tariffs are indexed for inflation each year.
Clean energy is a very important issue for energy-rich Kazakhstan
and Central Asia as whole, where it is of particular relevance.
Kazakhstan has adopted an action plan on the development of renewable energy sources for a period from 2013 to 2020.
The government is interested in involving renewable energy sources as a part of the country's energy balance, reducing emissions into the environment, and bringing these standards to the European level by 2030.
The Energy Ministry went on to add that generation of electricity from the renewable energy sources is increasing in Kazakhstan. The country produced 462 million kilowatt hours of electricity from renewable energy sources in the first nine months of 2015.
Solar power plants have produced 32.4 million kilowatt hours of
electricity. The volume of electricity generated at Kapchagay solar
power plant reached 2.7 million kilowatt hours, while the Otar
plant produced 0.8 million kilowatt hours in the reported
period.
Burnoe solar power plant commissioned in early July has generated
26.3 million kilowatt hours of electricity in the first two
quarters of 2015.
Experts estimate that Kazakhstan has 2,200-3,000 hours of sunshine
per year, while the annual solar radiation energy is 1,300-1,800
kilowatt hours per square meter in the central and southern regions
of the country and 1,000-1,500 kilowatt hours per square meter in
northern and western regions, which creates quite favorable
conditions for development of solar energy.
In this regard experts say Kazakhstan should turn to alternative energy sources by 2030, as traditional sources are being exhausted and their prices are rising. They claim that about 20-30 percent of energy consumption can be saved by using alternative energy resources.
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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova
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