Azernews.Az

By Ayya Lmahamad

Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov has said that although Azerbaijan has large oil and gas resources and is an exporter, one of the main goals is to develop the renewable energy sources field and become a green energy exporter.

He made the remarks during a roundtable on the topic “Azerbaijan-oil, gas and beyond: Prospects for a future energy partnership” held within the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue conference.

“Given the large solar and wind energy projects currently being implemented, the rich potential of renewable energy sources on land - about 27,000 megawatts, and offshore - 157,000 megawatts, as well as plans to build two new lines that will ensure an increase in electricity exports to Europe, it can be said that Azerbaijan has great prospects to become a source of the green energy corridor,” he said.

The minister underlined that this also makes Azerbaijan’s next contribution to the diversification of Europe’s energy supply through green energy. He stressed that companies from Germany can become important partners in bilateral long-term energy cooperation in this direction.

Stressing that Germany's trade with Azerbaijan increased by 57 percent last year, the minister spoke about the prospects for developing cooperation between the two countries in new areas.

Shahbazov noted that the end of the long-term conflict fully ensured security, which is one of the main prerequisites for the inflow of investments into the region. In this regard, he stressed that the widespread use of renewable energy sources both in the liberated Karabakh and East Zangazur economic zones and in the country as a whole has been identified as one of the country’s national priorities.

“All this, along with the potential and goals of Azerbaijan related to green energy, the rich experience of German companies, as well as the combination of possible investment opportunities, can open a new page in energy cooperation,” he said.

The participants of the event also discussed the effective cooperation relations with VPC, Siemens, Berlin Wind and other German companies in the field of energy. They noted that fruitful cooperation was established with the German Energy Agency-DENA to prepare four pilot project proposals to support the development of decentralized renewable energy in Azerbaijan. To expand cooperation, German companies have been invited to participate in renewable energy projects.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

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