BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 25
By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:
The total volume of foreign investments in two alternative energy development projects will make up nearly $400 million, Jahid Mikayilov, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry, told Trend.
According to Mikayilov, the issue is about wind and solar power plants with a total capacity of 440 megawatts (240 megawatts for wind plant and 200 megawatts for solar energy), implementation of which was started jointly with ACWA Power from Saudi Arabia and Masdar from the United Arab Emirates.
"It’s expected that the plants totally generate about 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, allowing to save over 300 million cubic meters of natural gas annually, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 600,000 tons," he said. "Today, one of our main goals is to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the established electricity capacity up to 30 percent by 2030 by creating additional capacity of 1,500 megawatts."
The spokesman also noted that Azerbaijan is interested in deepening cooperation in the field of electricity with neighboring countries.
"Reducing technology development costs, global climate challenges, policy incentives, striving to invest in renewable energy from the hydrocarbon sector, and considering the world economy as part of a sustainable recovery plan after the crisis are factors that increase the competitiveness of this type of energy," summed up Mikayilov.
Azerbaijan is one of the leading energy centers in the region.
The country generated 20.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity from January through October 2020, which is 4.8 percent more than from January through October 2019.
Some 922.4 million kilowatt-hours of that volume accounted for the volume produced by hydroelectric power plants, which is 33.1 percent less than from January through October 2019.
Some 19.13 billion kilowatt-hours of that volume accounted for the volume produced by thermal power plants, which is 8.2 percent more than from January through October 2019.
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