BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 12. The energy crisis in Europe has significantly boosted the demand for renewables, Charles Lhermitte, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at French-based Qair Group told Trend.
Commenting on how the situation with sanctions on Russia affects the renewables market, Lhermitte noted that for sure this crisis led to the hike in prices for oil and gas recourses in a global sense and more countries turn to renewables in this background.
“Perhaps like during the energy crisis in 1973, this strange situation is also an opportunity for the renewables. The target is to be able to provide cheap electricity for everybody and when the price of gas and oil increases drastically you have to find a solution. It is very interesting how this crisis can be an accelerator for renewable energy development,” Lhermitte said.
He pointed out that as of now, there is an overall agreement regarding the benefits of renewables seeing as renewables could be cheaper than oil and gas, especially in the current conditions.
Lhermitte also pointed out that the energy crisis in Europe led to an increase in demand for renewable projects.
“For example one month ago we won 2 large projects at an auction in Scotland – with a total of 2 GW of offshore projects. Currently, there are a lot of tenders in Spain, Greece and Italy. We are present in all these markets and we can see there is an increase in demand for renewables capacities in all the European countries. It is a good opportunity for us to grow,” he said.
He added that demand for renewables increased in all parts of the world and the company already has projects in 18 countries.
“Our strategy is Europe, in our sense Azerbaijan is connected to Europe in many ways: the grid connection, the fact that Azerbaijan is a large provider of gas to Europe and that there is a strong connection between Azerbaijan, Caucasus and Western Europe,” he said.
Lhermitte also put a lot of emphasis on the company’s work in Brazil and the emerging market.
“It is Vietnam, Seychelles, Burkina Faso, Chad and so on where we already have assets, PV projects under construction and those already connected to the grid. We also did a lot of auto consumption projects, within which we produce electricity directly for the factory,” he concluded.
Qair is an Independent Power Producer (IPP), operating 785 MW of power generation assets exclusively from renewable sources. The group is in the construction and financing phase for 700 MW and is also developing 22 GW of assets for future deployment in the heart of the 18 territories in which it operates.
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