BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 13. Brussels is of course interested in connecting Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to the Caspian EU Energy Corridor initiative of Azerbaijan, former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza told Trend.
He believes that politically there should be no obstacles.
"Russia, which has always opposed the Trans-Caspian natural gas pipeline, has never said anything about electricity and really probably doesn't get to vote, because the Trans Caspian electricity cable could pose no environmental harms to the Caspian Sea, which is one of the issues on which Russia has objected in the past,” said the former ambassador.
He went on to add that whether it's certainly technically feasible to do the connection, whether it's financially feasible is a different question.
“And that's being studied now and if it requires financial support, then they have to negotiate who provides that financial support, but those numbers I think are still being studied at this point,” said Bryza.
Azerbaijan, Romania Georgia and Hungary signed an agreement to build a Black Sea sea-belt electric cable from the Black Sea coast of Georgia to the Black Sea coast of Romania on December 17, 2022.
As part of this project, it is planned to lay a 1,195-kilometer power transmission line with a capacity of 1,000 MW between Georgia and Romania and install a digital connecting cable. To this end, with the support of the World Bank, it is planned to prepare a technical and economic justification of the project by the end of 2023.
Alongside with Azerbaijan, two Caspian Sea countries, namely Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan may also join this green corridor initiative to bring their vast green energy resources to Europe.
Particularly, addressing the 10th summit of heads of state of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in Astana on November 3, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty (People's Council) of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said that Turkmenistan will be able to supply electricity to Azerbaijan and Türkiye through the Caspian Sea in the near future.
He noted that today Turkmenistan supplies its electricity to neighboring countries such as Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and added that just today on the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea, near the city of Turkmenbashi, the foundation stone of a new, 1.574 MW power plant was laid.
As for Kazakhstan, by the end of 2022, there are 130 renewable energy facilities operating in Kazakhstan with an installed capacity of 2,400 MW (46 WPPs – 958 MW; 44 SPPs – 1148 MW; 37 HPPs – 280 MW; 3 BioPPs – 1.77 MW).
At the end of 2022, the volume of renewable energy production amounted to 5.11 billion kWh (wind farm - 2.4 billion kWh; solar power plant - 1.76 billion kWh; hydroelectric power station - 934 million kWh;) or 4.53 percent of the total volume of electrical energy production. In 2023, this figure will reach 5 percent.
Last year, 12 renewable energy facilities were commissioned with a total capacity of 385 MW with a total investment of 180 billion tenge (about $374 million).
In 2023, 15 facilities with a total capacity of 276 MW will be commissioned.
Follow the author on X: @Lyaman_Zeyn