BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 14. Azerbaijan is taking significant strides in the development of green energy, with green hydrogen emerging as a key component of the country's future energy mix, said Deputy Minister of Energy Elnur Soltanov, Trend reports.
Speaking at the EBRD Annual Meetings in London, during a panel discussion titled "Azerbaijan: Emerging Gateway to Green Growth and Connectivity", Soltanov provided insight into the country’s evolving energy strategy and its focus on renewable resources.
While acknowledging that Azerbaijan is not yet at the forefront of hydrogen technology, Soltanov emphasized the country’s strong potential in offshore wind energy, which could play a crucial role in the development of green hydrogen.
He explained that Azerbaijan’s focus on green hydrogen stems from its potential as a storage solution for excess energy, particularly from renewable sources. "The way we started thinking seriously about hydrogen and specifically green hydrogen was as a storage system. Storage systems are very expensive, but hydrogen has very nice properties. When you have too much energy that you cannot use, there could be curtailment. Can you channel that energy for the production of hydrogen, which can then turn into electricity when you have a short supply, or could be exported as a molecule? So this was the idea," Soltanov noted.
In addition to green hydrogen, the deputy minister highlighted Azerbaijan’s competitive advantage in blue hydrogen, citing the country’s natural gas reserves and depleted oil fields that are well-suited for carbon capture and storage. "We have natural gas, we have depleted oil and gas fields for carbon capture and storage, but at the same time, we pushed our consultants towards green energy as much as we could," he added.
However, Soltanov acknowledged that global developments have influenced Azerbaijan’s expectations for green hydrogen. "Five years ago, we had much more upbeat expectations regarding green hydrogen. Today, we don’t have the same thing. But again, in every consultancy that we are hiring, and I appreciate free advice definitely, whenever we hire them, we have to include issues related to green hydrogen," he said.
"Given the scale that we have in the Caspian and the infrastructure I was mentioning before, we believe that we could create some kind of ecosystem, a symbiotic relationship between them, and again pull this off," he concluded.