Solar thermal magazine Solar Energy Revolution in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan has adopted a new feed-in tariff last month. The EBRD has worked with the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies and the Ministry of Environmental Protection to help develop various aspects of the new legislation. The tariff is set at 34,61 tenge/kWh (approx. 14 eurocents), and will be fully indexed/adjusted for inflation annually. The term of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) is 15 years.
PrimeSolar is a shareholder and EPC contractor in a 100 MW project at Jambyl Province. Construction is scheduled to begin in April of 2015.
Industry is the key consumer of electricity in Kazakhstan (oil industry, metallurgy, mining, chemical industry, energy and machine construction), followed by households and transportation industry. The economy is overall more energy intensive than the economies of the countries in the EU. There are 71 power stations in Kazakhstan, including 5 hydro power plants. This represents an installed electric capacity of approximately 19,400 MW, and available output 15,300 MW at the end of 2012.
Wind and solar electricity currently accounts for less than 0.05% of the total capacity, and the government plans to bring this number higher. Majority of Kazakhstan’s territory has average wind speeds of 4-5 m/sec at a height of 30m, resulting in wind power generation capacity of almost 10 MW per square kilometer. Solar irradiation averages reach 1500 kWh/kWp levels. The country is stable and rich in natural resources. There exists good potential for continued economic growth.
The market for the generated kilowatt-hours is expected to be quite healthy in the decades beyond the term of the PPA. Resulting from a number of underlying factors, the trend demonstrates that average electricity prices will more than double by 2030, according to the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change.
Photo: "Kazakhstan political map 2000" by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency - University of Texas Libraries, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection: Kazakhstan maps. Extracted from "The Caucasus and Central Asia Political Map 2000"This image is a copy or a derivative work of caucasus_cntrl_asia_pol_00.jpg, from the map collection of the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) of the University of Texas at Austin.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Tags: Kazakhstan
