BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 30. This week it became known that British Petroleum (BP) has submitted a decarbonization master plan to Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry to support the transition to clean energy, Trend reports.
Document includes an in-depth assessment of proposals and recommendations for decarbonization and describes the potential of renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan and opportunities to reduce carbon emissions, including innovative projects in the sphere of renewable energy sources.
Azerbaijan’s Energy Ministry has made a number of important statements regarding the presented decarbonization plan. Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said that the creation of a green energy zone with zero emissions and Azerbaijan's priorities and plans for growth of green energy require the introduction of low-carbon approaches.
This document includes advanced solutions for building Azerbaijan's energy system based on renewable energy sources and a low-carbon future, also to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2050.
Moreover, BP's support for the decarbonization process, also participation in the implementation of country’s "green agenda", takes the long-term and reliable partnership of sides in hydrocarbon sector to a new level and paves the way for joint contribution to global climate goals.
This week it was also reported that it is planned to restore five more small hydroelectric power plants in Karabakh with a total installed capacity of 100.27 megawatts by the end of 2022.
It is expected that electricity generation in Azerbaijan’s liberated territories will be carried out from renewable energy sources. First of all, it’s planned to use water, wind and solar energy. Work in this direction is already underway. Four small hydroelectric power stations have been fully restored, which already provide these territories with electricity.
In addition, work is being completed on assessing the potential and construction project of a power plant with an installed capacity of 240 megawatts by BP in Jabrayil region.
This week, Bulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov also announced that a serious delay in the construction of the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector has been eliminated. The interconnector should be completely ready by the middle of 2022 and put into commercial operation in a few months.
Moreover, Bulgaria held accelerated negotiations with Azerbaijan on the purchase of additional volumes of gas in context of supply crisis. According to the minister, the fruitful dialogue between two countries gives ground for optimism, first of all, Bulgaria will receive agreed volumes in full from the beginning of July, and, secondly, these volumes can be increased in future.
This week German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Wolfgang Manig said that Germany is extremely interested in diversifying energy partners, and Azerbaijan will play an important role in this regard.
This week, it was also reported that the European Investment Bank sent 1.2 million euros to the Green for Growth Fund (GGF) to support energy efficiency initiatives and renewable energy projects in Azerbaijan.
In addition, the UK Export Credit Agency (UKEF) actively monitors solar energy projects in Azerbaijan and is considering future cooperation with the country on other projects in the sphere of renewable energy.