Azernews.Az

By Trend

The potential of wind energy in the mountainous areas of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh is estimated at over 500 megawatts, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Energy.

Under the chairmanship of Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and with the participation of the heads of the relevant structural units of the ministry, a meeting dedicated to the work to be done and the steps to be taken to calculate the exact potential of renewable energy sources such as hydropower, solar, wind, bioenergy and geothermal energy in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts was held.

At the meeting, the districts with great potential for renewable energy in the liberated territories were reviewed separately, proposals were made on the installation of measuring observation stations in those districts to determine the exact potential for wind and solar energy, as well as on the evaluation of technical opportunities and economic efficiency.

It was noted that 8 areas with high solar energy potential were selected in the territory of Kalbajar, Lachin, Gubadli, Zangilan, Jabrayil, and Fuzuli districts. Although it may seem possible to deploy solar power plants with a total capacity of 7,214 MW in these areas, the total potential here is estimated at more than 4,000 MW, given that some parts of the southern area may have agricultural purposes.

Then, the wind energy resources of the Kalbajar and Lachin districts were reviewed. The potential of wind energy in the mountainous areas of Karabakh is estimated at over 500 megawatts and most areas with this potential are located in those zones of the above two districts, which border with Armenia. Despite such great potential, due to the lack of favorable infrastructure, it was stressed that the issue of wind power generation in these areas required on-site research operations.

Given the fact that 25 percent of Azerbaijan's local water resources are generated in Karabakh, electricity generation prospects of major rivers such as Tartar, Bazarchay, Hakari and their branches were reviewed and information was given about the small hydropower plants in the region.