BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 26. Azerbaijan and China have a really unique opportunity to work on a bilateral track with respect to renewables, said President Ilham Aliyev in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Beijing, Trend reports.
"So for the time being, Chinese companies are working as contractors with the companies investing in green energy of Azerbaijan. So far, the contracts we have signed, and which are now in the phase of implementation, will give us 6,500 megawatts of renewable energy by 2030. Just for comparison, the total installed capacity of Azerbaijan is 8,000 megawatts. So, in five years, we will almost double today's electric energy capacity. Of that, 6,000 megawatts will come from solar and wind, and 500 megawatts from hydro. That will be crucial for us, because we will largely stop using natural gas to produce electricity. We will have electricity from renewables, and we will export natural gas to international markets, and, of course, make a lot of profit. At the same time, we will save energy for domestic needs.
We have already purchased 160 electric buses, which are already operating on the streets. Everybody is happy about that. We contracted 200 more. And most importantly, this year, hopefully, we will start joint manufacturing of BYD electric buses in Azerbaijan with a capacity of 500 buses a year. So our plan is to convert Baku public transportation completely to green, and after that, all the other cities of Azerbaijan.
So, we have a really unique opportunity to work on a bilateral track with respect to renewables because it is in line with our strategy and your agenda," President Ilham Aliyev said.