ASTANA, Kazakhstan, December 26. Kazakhstan pays special attention to the development of renewable energy sources. Every year, the country makes decisions and enters into major agreements aimed at developing green energy sources.
By the end of 2022, there are 130 renewable energy facilities operating in the country 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). 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.
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).
The 2023 was also fruitful in the development of renewable energy sources. Kazakhstan has signed major agreements with international partners for the construction of major renewable energy facilities in the country.
Trend News Agency provides an overview of the main events in the oil and gas sector of Kazakhstan in 2023:
Cooperation with international companies
Eni S.p.A.
Kazakhstan's KazMunayGas signed an agreement with Italian Eni S.p.A. to build a hybrid energy plant in the Mangystau region. The hybrid plant will support green energy development in Kazakhstan by producing solar and wind energy, in addition to gas.
The total capacity of the plant will amount to 120 MW.
The solar energy generating unit is expected to be commissioned in 2024, while the gas and wind energy units are forecasted to start working in 2025.
In addition, the Plenitude (100 percent controlled by Eni S.p.A.) inaugurated its first photovoltaic plant in Kazakhstan, close to Shaulder village in the Turkestan region.
The facility, with a 50-MW installed capacity, further expands Plenitude's international portfolio and its presence, through its subsidiary Arm Wind, in Kazakhstan's renewables sector.
The photovoltaic plant, spanning 100 hectares of land, will produce up to 90 GWh of electricity annually and will feature over 93,000 solar panels and an electrical substation.
Moreover, as the Managing Director of Eni Plenitude's Arm Wind Alex Stillavato announced that Arm Wind is developing a hybrid power plant project in Kazakhstan.
A renewable energy source+gas hybrid power plant with a capacity of 250 MW will be built near the city of Zhanaozen in the Mangystau region together with KazMunayGas.
ACWA Power
Kazakhstan has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power on the implementation of a major project in the field of renewable energy sources. The signed agreement is aimed at financing, construction, operation and development of a wind power plant with a total capacity of 1 GW.
The construction of plant is scheduled to begin in 2025 in the Zhetysu region of Kazakhstan.
Masdar
In June, Masdar, one of the world’s leading clean energy companies, confirmed its readiness to build wind power plants in Kazakhstan's Jambyl region. In this regard, the company signed with Kazakh side a roadmap for developing up to 1 gigawatt (GW) wind power plant.
Total Eren
In April, French Total Eren announced its readiness to implement a project for a wind power plant in Kazakhstan's Jambyl region. The total capacity of the project will reach 1 GW. This is the first-ever wind farm in Kazakhstan, which will be supplemented by a system of electricity storage. The preliminary cost of the project is $1.9 billion.
On November 1, as part of the official visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Astana, Kazakhstan signed an agreement on a joint venture with Total Eren.
The project is supposed to be implemented in two stages. It is planned to introduce 300 MW of power in the first stage and then the remaining 700 MW. An electricity storage system will be installed at the wind power plants, which will reduce the risk of network instability due to intermittent wind generation.
SVEVIND Energy Group
The Hyrasia One (a subsidiary of the European cleantech group SVEVIND Energy Group) will implement a project to produce green hydrogen in the Mangystau region of Kazakhstan.
Pre-FEED (the preliminary stage of a project where the project's initial concept is developed) work began under the Investment Agreement signed during the visit of the President of the European Council Charles Michel to Kazakhstan last year.
The project involves construction and operation of a desalination plant, a 40GW renewable energy stations (wind, solar), as well as a 20GW water electrolysis plant with an annual production capacity of 2 million tons of green hydrogen or 11 million tons of green ammonia.
The preliminary investment amount is more than 50 billion euros. Design documentation will be completed by 2026. The start of infrastructure construction is planned for 2027, and commissioning in 2032.
Globalia
On November 2, Hungarian company Globalia announced plans to build solar power plants in a number of regions of Kazakhstan.
The cost of the solar power plant construction project is $150 million. In order to further intensify the investment partnership, an agreement was reached on the joint implementation of several more projects.
Air Liquide
Air Liquide Munay Tech Gases LLP (a joint venture of Kazakhstan's KazMunayGas and France's Air Liquide) has signed an agreement with Kazakhstan's Pavlodar Petrochemical Plant (PPP) on the construction of a hydrogen production plant at the PPP, with further production of up to 160,000 tons of winter diesel fuel annually.
The estimated project cost is 80 million euros.
China Power International Holding (CPIH)
On December 8, Chinese CPIH announced plans on the construction of a wind power plant in Kazakhstan. The total capacity of the wind power plant will be 1 GW. It will also have an energy storage system. The first 500 MW of the wind power plant is planned to be implemented in the Jambyl region.
In June, a Roadmap for the implementation of the project was signed, and in October, Samruk-Kazyna and CPIH signed a Joint Development Agreement.
In addition, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has signed a $36-million loan agreement for the development, construction, and operation of a 100-megawatt (MW) wind power plant in the Jambyl region of southern Kazakhstan, which was co-developed by China Power International Holding and Visor International DMCC.
It will also be supported by concessional financing of up to $10 million from the Green Climate Fund and up to $5.7 million from the Clean Technology Fund.
At the same time, it was announced that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will also provide a loan for this project.
The loan amount will be up to $39 million (to be disbursed in both US dollars and Kazakhstan tenge).
Borey Wind LLP
The EBRD will provide a senior loan of up to $45.6 million equivalent (in US dollar and tenge) to Borey Wind LLP, a SPV incorporated in Kazakhstan.
The loan is expected to be approved on February 7, 2024
The loan will be used to develop, build, and operate an onshore wind power plant and associated infrastructure, including a transmission line, with a capacity of 100 MW in Kazakhstan's Arshaly district of the Akmola region.
Energo Trust LLP
Moreover, the EBRD allocated a senior secured loan of up to $22 million equivalent (in USD and KZT) to Energo Trust LLP, a SPV incorporated in Kazakhstan.
The funds will be used for the development, construction, and operation of a wind power plant with an installed capacity of 50 MW in the Arshaly district of Akmola region, Kazakhstan. The project is expected to be co-financed with other financial institutions in amounts of up to $22 million.
Local measures to boost renewable energy capacity
As part of the Kazakh national energy strategy due to the government’s plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, it was revealed in the first half of the year that Kazakhstan will commission several renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 1,700 MW by 2026 in Almaty, Kyzylorda, Turkestan, and Ulytau regions.
One of the projects to support the country's efforts in boosting renewable resources was the construction of a solar power plant in Kazakhstan's Turkestan. The solar power plant with a total capacity of 50 MW will be built in the rural district of Shanak, with an estimated cost of 23.8 billion Kazakh tenge ($53 million).
At the beginning of July, it was announced that Kazakhstan intends to significantly increase the utilization of renewable energy sources in its energy balance, aiming to raise the current 4.5 percent to 15 percent by 2030.
Later, it became known that twenty-three renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 228.6 MW have been implemented in the Turkestan region of Kazakhstan.
In addition, three large renewable energy facilities are planned to be built in the Jambyl region of Kazakhstan. Renewable energy sources are developing dynamically in Kazakhstan. One of the leading regions in this area is Jambyl region.
There are 21 facilities with a solar and wind energy generation capacity of 450-460 MW. By the end of 2026-2027, it is planned to increase the capacity from the current 450 MW to 2.5 GW of wind energy.
It was announced that Kazakhstan needs more than $600 billion in funding to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
As Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov noted, increasing the volume of green investments is necessary for a large-scale transformation of the economy. In this regard, the PM instructed an analysis of barriers to the implementation of green projects, to accelerate the implementation of requirements for mandatory disclosure of information on green finance issues, and to provide appropriate indicators and activities in the action plan of the concept for the transition to a green economy.