Kazakhstan launches largest solar power station in Central Asia
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
A solar power plant SES Saran opened in the Saran city of the Karagandy region. Thus, it has become the largest SPP in the Central Asian region.
The plant's capacity is 100 MW, the press service of the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported. More than 300,000 solar modules of Canadian Solar Inc. were used during construction.
It is noted that the project was implemented in a short time. It was the result of the joint work of Kazakh government agencies, companies of Germany, the Czech and Slovak Republics, as well as the EBRD.
During the construction of the power plant, great importance was attached to local content. Residents of the city will work at SES Saran.
Among the guests at the solemn opening ceremony of the solar power plant were representatives of Kazakh departments and the German Ambassador to Kazakhstan Tilo Klinner. Prior to the opening ceremony, a memorandum on the development of the SES Saran project was signed, which provides for the expansion of investments to $ 500 million.
Kazakhstan, being the largest Central Asian republic, has a great potential for solar energy.
By 2020, only in Karagandy region it is planned to commission another 6 new “green energy” facilities, the total capacity of which will be about 261 megawatts.
Since 2013, as many as 50 projects have been implemented in Kazakhstan to build or modernise solar, wind and hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of more than 300 MW, according to the Energy Ministry.
About 70 percent of the territory of Kazakhstan belongs to areas with a predominance of sunny days in a year. The duration of sunshine here ranges from 2,800 to 3,000 hours.
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
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