Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan plans to commission 106 facilities to generate energy from renewable energy

Kazakhstan plans to commission 106 facilities to generate energy from renewable energy sources by late 2020, according to the country’s Energy Ministry.

The country will commission 28 solar power plants with a capacity of 713.5 megawatts in Almaty, Zhambyl, Atyrau, Karaganda, Kyzylorda, South Kazakhstan and Mangistau provinces, the ministry told Trend.

The total capacity of these facilities will all to around 3.055 megawatts.

The ministry said all these projects are being implemented with foreign funds and are not financed from the national budget.

As part of the concept for transition of Kazakhstan to “green economy,” the volume of electricity generated from the renewable energy sources is planned to reach 3 % of the total volume of electricity by 2020 and 10 % by 2030.

The Energy Ministry as well added that under the law “Support for use of renewable energy sources,” fixed tariffs for the electricity generated from the renewable energy sources have been approved since 2014 for 15 years.

The tariffs for the electricity generated by wind farms were set at 22.68 tenges ($1 = 307.314 tenges) per kilowatt hours; solar power plants – 34.61 tenges; small hydro power plants – 16.71 tenges; and biogas plants – 32.23 tenges per kilowatt hours.

The approved fixed tariffs are indexed for inflation each year.

Clean energy is a very significant issue for energy-rich Kazakhstan and Central Asia as whole, where it is of particular relevance.

Kazakhstan has adopted an action plan on the development of renewable energy sources for a period from 2013 to 2020.

The government is interested in involving renewable energy sources as a part of the country's energy balance, reducing emissions into the environment, and bringing these standards to the European level by 2030.

The Energy Ministry went on to add that generation of electricity from the renewable energy sources is increasing in Kazakhstan. The country produced 462 million kilowatt hours of electricity from renewable energy sources in the initial nine months of 2015.

Solar power plants have produced 32.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity. The volume of electricity generated at Kapchagay solar power plant reached 2.7 million kilowatt hours, while the Otar plant produced 0.8 million kilowatt hours in the reported period.

Burnoe solar power plant commissioned in early July has generated 26.3 million kilowatt hours of electricity in the initial two quarters of 2015.

Experts estimate that Kazakhstan has 2,200-3,000 hours of sunshine per year, while the annual solar radiation energy is 1,300-1,800 kilowatt hours per square meter in the central and southern regions of the country and 1,000-1,500 kilowatt hours per square meter in northern and western regions, which creates completely favorable conditions for development of solar energy.

In this regard experts say Kazakhstan should turn to alternative energy sources by 2030, as traditional sources are being exhausted and their prices are rising. They claim that about 20-30 % of energy consumption can be saved by using alternative energy resources.