ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry plans to increase the share of alternative and renewable electricity up to 30 percent of the total power generation by 2030 and reduce the energy intensity of the country’s GDP by 25 percent by 2020, Deputy Minister of Energy Gani Sadibekov said at a press conference on January 26, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
According to the Deputy Minister, the renewable energy market is growing annually in Kazakhstan — in 2017, 1.1 billion kWh was generated, which is 22 percent more than in 2016. The plan for 2018 is 1.7 billion kWh. In addition, five renewable energy projects were put into operation last year: three hydropower plants, one wind power plant, and one solar power plant.
This year, it is planned to introduce 10 renewable energy generating facilities with a total capacity of 123 MW.
It is also planned to begin further development of renewable energy sources (RES) with the transition to the auction mechanism. It will help make the process of selection of projects and investors transparent. This system will give impetus to the development of the most cost-effective RES projects, Sadibekov said.
The Vice Minister said that this year for the first time international auctions will be held for RES projects with a total capacity of 1 GW. The first bidding is scheduled for May 2018.
A number of domestic and foreign companies, including ACWA Power (Saudi Arabia), SKY Power (Canada), Shell, General Electric (the US), and Goldwind (China) expressed their interest in participation in the auction.
