Green power stations to cover 2 percent of Kazakhstan's energy needs

Solar power station. Photo by Dmitriy Khegai©

Green power station will supply for around 1-2 percent of Kazakhstan’s total electricity consumption by 2020, Tengrinews.kz reports citing an independent energy expert Gennadiy Doroshin. According to the plan of Kazakhstan Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, 34 green power stations will be launched in Kazakhstan by 2020. The aggregated capacity of the green power stations will make 1,362.34 MW. According to Doroshin, Kazakhstan’s total need makes 20 thousand MW. If recalculated to kilowatt-hours, the green power stations will be hardly able to cover 2 percent of the total needs. Kazakhstan has voluntarily undertaken obligations to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent (compared to 1992) by 2020 and by 25 percent by 2050, Doroshin reminded. “This is a complex process involving increasing of energy efficiency of industries and modernization of power stations. The answer to the question on whether these 34 stations will be enough to fulfill the obligations is no. We have to take a more comprehensive approach and see how well everything is prepared,” the expert said. According to the expert, modernization of the existing thermal power plants has to become one of the key aspects in improvement of the ecology in the country. ‘We are generating energy using outdated coal-fueled plants and none of them comply with the modern requirements. Some of them may break down completely in a decade. But right now all of them are producing energy without any additional investments. They have been built a very long time ago,” Doroshin said. Around 1,000 MW out of the planned 1,362 will be produced by the wind power stations. According to Doroshin, wind energy potential is much higher than that of other of renewable energy sources in Kazakhstan. “According to the calculations, the potential of wind energy stands at around 350 thousand MW (which is 17.5 times more than the total energy needs of Kazakhstan). Water potential is much less and it’s use is limited. Not all rivers are suitable for the purpose, while there is wind almost everywhere throughout Kazakhstan,” the expert said. By Dmitriy Khegai

Green power station will supply for around 1-2 percent of Kazakhstan’s total electricity consumption by 2020, Tengrinews.kz reports citing an independent energy expert Gennadiy Doroshin. According to the plan of Kazakhstan Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, 34 green power stations will be launched in Kazakhstan by 2020. The aggregated capacity of the green power stations will make 1,362.34 MW. According to Doroshin, Kazakhstan’s total need makes 20 thousand MW. If recalculated to kilowatt-hours, the green power stations will be hardly able to cover 2 percent of the total needs. Kazakhstan has voluntarily undertaken obligations to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent (compared to 1992) by 2020 and by 25 percent by 2050, Doroshin reminded. “This is a complex process involving increasing of energy efficiency of industries and modernization of power stations. The answer to the question on whether these 34 stations will be enough to fulfill the obligations is no. We have to take a more comprehensive approach and see how well everything is prepared,” the expert said. According to the expert, modernization of the existing thermal power plants has to become one of the key aspects in improvement of the ecology in the country. ‘We are generating energy using outdated coal-fueled plants and none of them comply with the modern requirements. Some of them may break down completely in a decade. But right now all of them are producing energy without any additional investments. They have been built a very long time ago,” Doroshin said. Around 1,000 MW out of the planned 1,362 will be produced by the wind power stations. According to Doroshin, wind energy potential is much higher than that of other of renewable energy sources in Kazakhstan. “According to the calculations, the potential of wind energy stands at around 350 thousand MW (which is 17.5 times more than the total energy needs of Kazakhstan). Water potential is much less and it’s use is limited. Not all rivers are suitable for the purpose, while there is wind almost everywhere throughout Kazakhstan,” the expert said. By Dmitriy Khegai

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