BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 7. Azerbaijan is working on an action plan under its National Hydrogen Strategy, Javid Abdullayev, Director of the Azerbaijan Renewable Energy Agency, said, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
Abdullayev made the remarks while speaking at the opening of a modern renewable energy laboratory at Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (ADNSU).
He said a number of issues related to the development of a hydrogen economy in Azerbaijan remain unresolved.
“Questions related to the future are quite serious, and there is currently no definitive answer to them. The main reason is that the hydrogen economy does not yet exist,” Abdullayev said.
He said further research is needed to determine how efficient it would be to convert electricity into hydrogen for storage and then use that hydrogen to generate electricity again.
“For example, we are talking about converting electricity into hydrogen and using it as a storage system. But we need to determine where and in what form it can be applied, as well as how efficient it would be to use the energy converted into hydrogen to generate electricity again,” he said.
Abdullayev also acknowledged a degree of skepticism surrounding hydrogen energy.
“I can say that there is some skepticism on our side as well. However, we are working in this direction step by step,” he said.
According to Abdullayev, Azerbaijan is studying various areas related to hydrogen, including sustainable aviation fuel.
“Sustainable aviation fuel and other areas are quite interesting. Our colleagues have recently spent a week in Germany, at German universities and relevant institutions,” he said.
Abdullayev said work was underway to prepare an action plan under Azerbaijan’s National Hydrogen Strategy.
“In the coming days, with financial support from the European Union, we are preparing a tender for the strategy and getting ready to present our action plan. We will answer these questions specifically in the action plan,” he said.
He noted that hydrogen production and exports had previously been considered as part of interconnector projects.
“Previously, we considered hydrogen production and hydrogen exports as part of our interconnector projects. Currently, hydrogen production is being carried out in a limited number of countries and geographical areas around the world. We are also trying to assess its economic efficiency and potential,” Abdullayev said.
The agency director highlighted strong interest in hydrogen energy in China.
“In China, this issue is being advanced with a very strong initiative. China is also making major strides in renewable energy. This approach shows that hydrogen production could become economically efficient at a certain stage,” he said.
At the same time, Abdullayev said large-scale use of hydrogen remains more of a long-term prospect.
“This is very much a question for the future, and we believe that this issue will become clearer at the next stage,” he said.
He also highlighted challenges arising from the integration of renewable energy sources into the power grid.
“In a country like ours, integrating variable generation into the power grid is not particularly easy. Operational issues and even environmental problems need to be considered,” Abdullayev said.
As an example, he cited the impact of bird migration on wind turbines in the Khizi and Shurabad areas.
“For example, in Khizi and Shurabad, there is a problem related to bird migration in front of the turbines, and the turbines are shut down when birds arrive. Imagine that 70 megawatts of capacity are removed from the system at that moment. How will you restore this capacity in the system? You need to carry out certain balancing measures,” he said.
According to Abdullayev, such situations caused by variable renewable energy generation represent a major challenge for the power system.
“This is a very serious issue for the power grid. Among the problems created by variable generation, this is one of the main and major challenges,” he said.
