Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 30
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
Work on developing the renewable energy sector has been stepped up in Kazakhstan. A number of measures have been taken to revitalize the sector, including the signing of agreements in the field of wind power with foreign companies.
“Wind energy is already being used in the South and in the East of Kazakhstan, providing some volumes of energy. Cooperation on purchasing of necessary equipment has already been conducted with China, which is potentially one of Kazakhstan's future key partners in the field of alternative energy,” Chief Researcher of Kazakhstan’s Institute of Economics Oleg Egorov told Trend.
He added that, although the alternative energy sources come to their active development point, the age of oil and gas is not so close to its end yet. For this reason the area of renewable energy is expected to grow gradually in Kazakhstan, without competing with traditional energy sources (oil, gas).
“The volume of oil production in Kazakhstan is stable, and it is even expected to increase in future, that’s why the alternative energy sources won’t be able to replace oil and similar minerals in near future. In contrary these two different types of energy sources will mutually benefit each other. Renewable energy will be used in oil and gas fields, and revenues from oil and gas sales, in turn, will allow purchasing necessary equipment for the development of alternative energy sector of the country,” said Egorov.
He said that oil and gas development allows the country to produce a big number of polymer chain products, which is impossible to produce using any alternative energy sources at current time.
“The mentioned products are used in mechanical engineering, aircraft building and other important industries of the country. These facts make the presence of traditional energy sources essential for Kazakhstan’s industry, unless there are no other options, which could replace oil and gas,” Egorov noted.
“However, the trend of development of renewable energy sources in the world creates new fields for development of products of a new type, which will stop the dependence on the minerals that most of the countries use today,” he said.