ASTANA, Kazakhstan, February 23. Kazakhstan plans to build seven renewable energy facilities with a capacity of 48 MW in the Turkestan region by 2025, said Vice Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan Alibek Zhamauov during a meeting with the population of the region, Trend reports.
"The Turkestan region has high potential for the development of renewable energy sources. Today, the region occupies a leading position in the country in terms of the capacity of renewable energy sources. There are 21 operating renewable energy facilities in the region, with a total capacity of 278 MW. It is also planned to build seven facilities with a capacity of 48 MW by 2025," he said.
At the same time, Zhamauov informed the population of the region about the gas supply. "Today, 77 percent of the population of the region, or about 1.6 million people, have access to gas. This year, it is planned to implement 14 projects that will provide access to gas to 15 settlements, or about 26,000 people," he said.
In addition, Alibek Zhamauov noted that the main energy sources in the region are the Kentau Thermal Power Plant and the Shardara Hydroelectric Power Station.
"The installed electrical capacity of the Shardara HPP is 126 MW, and the Kentau TPP is 12.5 MW. At the same time, the physical wear and tear of the main equipment of the Shardara HPP is 5 percent, while at the Kentau CHPP this figure is 84.5 percent," he said.
Meanwhile, by the end of 2022, there were 130 renewable energy facilities operating in the Republic 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.
In 2022, 12 renewable energy facilities were commissioned with a total capacity of 385 MW and a total investment of 180 billion tenge (about $374 million).