The share of RES in Kazakhstan will reach 6% by 2025

2020 became the milestone period for the implementation of the RES indicator in the Concept of Kazakhstan's transition to a "green" economy.

A 3% share in the total volume of electricity production at the end of 2020 is fully provided. The Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nurlan Nogayev announced this at a meeting of the Government.

As N. Nogayev noted, the documents of the state planning system set the following goals:

- to increase the share of renewable energy in total electricity production to 6% in 2025;

- by 2030 - 10%;

- by 2050, renewable and alternative energy sources should account for at least half of the total total energy consumption.

“Thanks to the established conditions, renewable energy is growing steadily. Over the past 6 years, the installed capacity of renewable energy facilities has grown almost 10 times - from 178 MW in 2014 to 1,635 in 2020”, the minister said.

Currently, there are 116 renewable energy facilities operating in Kazakhstan with an installed capacity of 1,685 MW. By the end of 2020, the generation of green energy amounted to 3.24 billion kWh. In 2021, it is planned to commission 23 renewable energy facilities with a capacity of 381.1 MW.

Nurlan Nogayev emphasized that the development of the renewable energy market in Kazakhstan will continue with a view to sustainable development and diversification of the energy sector.

The location of generating capacities based on renewable energy sources in the regions is carried out taking into account the resource potential, the demand for electricity, the maximum permissible capacities in the zones of the Integrated Electric Power System and taking into account the readiness of the infrastructure. This allows not exceeding the limits of renewable energy capacities for reliable operation of the Integrated Power System of Kazakhstan.

Auction system has resulted in significant price reductions for renewable energy sources.

For renewable energy projects in 2018-2020, international auctions were held in electronic format with a total capacity of 1.5 GW.

Over 3 years, 25 auctions have been successfully held. The auction was attended by 172 companies from 12 countries, such as: Kazakhstan, China, Russia, Turkey, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Malaysia, Spain.

The system of auctions made it possible to achieve a significant reduction in prices for "green" energy. The maximum reduction in tariffs for individual projects was 64% for solar power plants, 30% for wind power plants and 19% for hydroelectric power plants.

As a result of the auctions, 58 companies signed contracts with a single purchaser of RES electricity Accounting and Financial Center (AFC) for 15 years for a total capacity of 1,219 MW. Since the operation of the AFC, about 626 billion tenge has been attracted to the renewable energy sector, and about 81 billion tenge will be paid from the constructed facilities in the form of taxes.

The Minister noted that in recent years, work has been carried out to attract investments in the sector by signing a number of agreements and memorandums with international financial institutions and organizations in the amount of about 240 billion tenge (613 million US dollars).

Investors from 10 countries of the world, as well as large financial institutions such as the EBRD, ADB, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) are now working in the green energy sector. In addition, large oil companies such as Eni, Total-Eren, who have already implemented projects in Kazakhstan and have plans for the further development of renewable energy projects, came as investors.