Kazakhstan is working hard to step up energy saving and efficiency, Tengrinews reports referring to the Vice-Minister of Industry and New Technologies of Kazakhstan Albert Rau.
Kazakhstan is working hard to step up energy saving and efficiency, Tengrinews reports referring to the Vice-Minister of Industry and New Technologies of Kazakhstan Albert Rau.
Albert Rau reminded that President Nazarbayev tasked the Government with decreasing Kazakhstan's GDP energy intensity "by 10% till 2015, by 25% till 2020, and by at least two-fold till 2050."
Speaking about the progress of the first five-year phase of the plan he said that the 2015 energy saving goals were achieved ahead of time. Compared to 2008, the GDP energy intensity decreased by 13%. "This had much to do with structural changes in the economy. The economy was growing faster then the energy consumption," he explained. Besides, the Government formed a legal framework to stimulate energy saving and introduced energy auditors.
A state energy registry was formed this year. It includes all the enterprises that consume 1500 tons of fuel equivalent a year or more. These plants have to undergo energy audits.
However, there is still much to be achieved, Albert Rau said, and more legislative changes are required to stimulate the process. "We need to focus on our top 50 companies that consume 40% of all the energy. If we get them to save 25% of the energy they consume, this would make a 10% energy saving progress for the entire country," the Vice-Minister said.
“Generally, we think that the beginning was good, and we are ready to move on,” Albert Rau concluded.
Writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina