Azerbaijan to establish new electricity generating capacity
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijan is set to establish new electricity generating capacity in renewable energy as of 2015.
The State Agency for Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources plans to launch a project with a total capacity of 300 megawatts, Head of the Agency Akim Badalov said.
The project will focus on the generation of solar, wind, geothermal waters, small rivers and biomass energy.
At present, construction of the wind energy station with a total capacity of 50 megawatts is completed in Yeni Yashma.
"In the coming days, after getting the approval of the state commission, we plan to connect this first major station with the total distribution network Azerenergy," he said.
The preparatory work has been accomplished to create seven solar power plants and establish them in late 2014- early 2015, he added.
Moreover, there are plans to build stations generating electricity from biomass in Shaki and Siyazan regions of Azerbaijan, where waste products from cattle and chickens will be used to generate electricity.
Today, the share of alternative energy sources in Azerbaijan is less than one percent. meanwhile small hydro power plants play a small role in producing the required electricity.
Over 100 million manats ($127 million) has been invested from the public fund in the development of alternative and renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan.
The government plans to build up to 100 objects for alternative energy for 5 years in Azerbaijan, according to preliminary research.
The share of solar energy in the total volume of alternative energy of Azerbaijan is estimated to reach 40 percent by 2020. The share of alternative energy sources is planned to increase to 20 percent of the total volume of energy consumption in Azerbaijan by 2020, which requires 7 billion manats ($8.9 billion) of investment.