BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 5. Solar power plants in Azerbaijan's Neftchala and Bilasuvar are expected to be commissioned in 2026, while construction of the Absheron-Garadagh wind power plant will take three years, Murad Sadikhov, Director of Masdar Azerbaijan said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
Sadikhov emphasized that these projects are part of UAE-based Masdar's mega-project initiative.
"On June 4, 2022, in Shusha, we signed two implementation agreements with the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan. As part of these projects, we planned to build and commission power plants with a capacity of 1 gigawatt of solar and 1 gigawatt of wind energy in the first and second phases each.
On June 4, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the 1-gigawatt project as part of the first phase. These projects include the 240 MW Absheron-Garadagh wind power plant (located on the Baku-Shamakhi highway, in the territory of Absheron and Garadagh), a 315 MW solar power plant in the Banke settlement of Neftchala region, and a 445 MW solar power plant in Bilasuvar. Construction of the solar power plants will be completed in approximately two years, with full operation expected in the second quarter of 2026. The wind power plant's construction and commissioning will take about three years. These are preliminary calculations, and a more precise schedule will be presented later as the projects develop," he explained.
On June 4, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber laid foundation stones for Neftchala, Bilasuvar solar power plants and Absheron-Garadagh wind power plant.
The ceremony took place at the opening of the 29th International Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition - Caspian Oil & Gas and the 12th Caspian International Power and Green Energy Exhibition - Caspian Power as part of the Baku Energy Week at the Baku Expo Center.
Annex to Investment Agreement, Energy Purchase Agreement, Agreement on Connection to Transmission Network and Land Lease Agreement on projects of 445 MW Bilasuvar SPP, 315 MW Neftchala SPP and 240 MW Absheron-Garadagh WPP were signed between the Ministry of Energy and Azerenergy OJSC and Masdar of the United Arab Emirates on June 4 in Baku.
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