Renewable energy in Kazakhstan

The Republic of Kazakhstan has enormous renewable energy potential, particularly from wind and small hydropower plants. The country has the potential to generate 10 times as much power as it currently needsfrom wind energy alone. But renewable energy accounts for just 0.6 percent of all power installations. Of that, 95 percent comes from small hydropower projects.^[1] The main barriers to investment in renewable energy are relatively high financing costs and an absence of uniform feed-in tariffs for electricity from renewable sources. The amount and duration of renewable energy feed-in tariffs are separately evaluated for each project, based on feasibility studies and project-specific generation costs. Power from wind, solar, biomass and water up to 35 MW, plus geothermal sources, are eligible for the tariff and transmission companies are required to purchase the energy of renewable energy producers. An amendmentthat introduces and clarifies technology-specific tariffs is now being prepared. It is expected to be adoptedby Parliament by the end of 2014. In addition, the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business indicator shows the country to be relatively investor-friendly, ranking it in 10th position for investor protection.^[2]

Kazakhstan is a party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1995) and ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2009. Kazakhstan has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.^[3] Having more renewable energy in the energy balance of Kazakhstan is one of the most effective mechanisms to reduce harmful effects of the energy sector and to diversify the national power generation capacity.

To help Kazakhstan meet its goals for renewable energy generation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is launching the Kazakhstan Renewable Energy Financing Facility (KazREFF). The KazREFF aims to provide development support and debt finance to renewable energy projects which meet required commercial, technical and environmental criteria. Renewable energy technologies supported will include solar, wind, small hydropower, geothermal, biomass, and biogas. The Facility comprises an amount of up to €50 million for financing projects together with up to €20 million of concessional finance from Clean Technology Fund(CTF), and the technical assistance funded by the Japanese government through the Japan-EBRD Cooperation Fund (JECF).^[4]

Current status

In 2013, the Government of Kazakhstan adopted a new law, On Supporting the Use of Renewable Energy Sources. This promotes technology-specific feed-in tariffs for selected renewable energy technologies, such as biomass, solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower, up to 35 MW.^[5] The costof the programme is estimated at KZT 1,100 billion (c. €5.3 billion). A plan to develop alternative and renewable energy in Kazakhstan for 2013-2020 was adopted by the Government in 2013. The plan aims to install about 1040 MW renewable energy capacity by 2020, including 793 MW from wind, 170 MW from hydro and 4 MW from solar sources. The cost of the plan is estimated at KZT 317.05 billion (c. €1.25 billion). Also in 2013, the Government of Kazakhstan adopted the Energy Efficiency 2020 programme, which plans to reduce energy consumption by 10 percent annually until 2015. A long-term strategy for Kazakhstan(until 2050) was also adopted in 2012. The strategy sets an ambitious goal of generating 50 percent of all power from alternative energy sources, including renewable sources. There are more incentives for investment in renewable energy.^[6]

On November 22, 2012 Astana was chosen by the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) as the venue to host EXPO-2017, which will focus on future energy issues. The theme of Future Energy is aimed to concentrate on both the future of energy but also on the potential energies of the future. Kazakhstan is very aware that the time has come for the world to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. The selection of Astana to serve as host city is especially notable, because EXPO-2017 will be the first time that a major international exhibition of this kind is coming to a country from the former Soviet Union. More than 100 countries and 10 international organizations are expected to participate. Exhibition will gather and demonstrate best global developments in the field of energy conservation, as well as latest technology achievements in solar, wind and water energies. Moreover, the energy for the exhibition itself will be obtained from renewable energy sources produced domestically. So the advantages of the'energy of the future' will be clearly demonstrated.^[7]

Hydropower

High potential regions for Hydropower plants

Small hydropower plants - the most rapidly developing areas of use of renewable energy in the country. Thus, in the period from 2007 to 2010 the Almaty region have introduced five small hydropower plants with a total installed capacity of 20 MW.^[8] One of the important areas of energy efficiency of Kazakhstan's economy is construction of hydroelectric power plants on small rivers operating without retaining dams. Hydropower accounts for approximately 13% percent of Kazakhstan's total generating capacity delivering around 7.78TWh from 15 large (450 MW)hydropower station with a total capacity of 2.248GW.^[9] Large hydropower plants comprise the Bukhtyrma (750MW, Shulbinsk (702MW)and Ust-Kamenogorsk (315MW)plants on the Irtysh river,the Kapshagai (364MW)plant on the Ili River,the Moinak (300MW)plant on the Charyn river and the Shardarinskaya (104MW)plant on the Syrdarya River.^[10] Small(1–10MW)and medium-scale(10–50MW)hydropower projects have become more popular because of their low cost,reliability and apparent environmental friendliness.^[11] There are seven small hydropower plants(<10MW),with a total installed capacity of 78MW and an estimated potential of 13TWh, spanning east and south Kazakhstan, Zhambyl and Almaty provinces. According to the experts, provided the smaller hydropower stations are installed about 8 billion kWh can produced per year and this is more than enough to meet the demand that is now satisfied through imports from Central Asia. In December 2011 the Moynak hydropower plant (300 MW) was put into operation within the realization of the State Program for Rapid Industrial-innovative Development. A number of the projects to build smaller hydropower plants are being implemented in southern Kazakhstan.^[12]

Solar energy

High potential regions for Solarpower plants

Kazakhstan has areas with high insolation that could be suitable for solar power, particularly in the south of the country, receiving between 2200 and 3000h of sunlight per year, which equals 1200–1700 kW/m2 annually.^[13] Both concentrated solar thermal and solar photovoltaic(PV)have potential.There is a 2MW solar PV plant near Almaty and six solar PV plants are currently under construction in the Zhambyl province of southern Kazakhstan with a combined capacity of 300MW.^[14] In addition to solar PV, concentrated solar thermal is advantageous given it does not require water for operation so can be used in desert and semi-desert areas, the materials(steel, glass,and concrete) are domestically produced in Kazakhstan and readily available, and solar thermal plants store energy in the form of heat, which is far more efficient than the batteries used in PV systems and allows electricity to be produced on demand, even after the sun has set,enabling both base and peak loads to be met. There are no current plans to install a concentrated solar thermal plant although the government plans to create 1.04GW of renewable energy capacity by 2020.^[15] The South-Kazakhstan, Kyzylorda oblast and the Aral region are the most suitable locations to build solar power plants.

The most significant project in this field implemented in 2002 in Kazakhstan and financed by the UN was to install 50 prism solar power plants with capacity of 100 liters of water each, and 50 solar stills, using the water from the Syr Darya river to provide the residents of two villages in the Aral region for drinking water and heating.^[16]

In particular, according to the Plan of Activities for Alternative and Renewable Energy in Kazakhstan, it is planned to put into operation about 28 solar energy projects until the end of 2020 with total installed capacity of 713.5 MW.^[17]

Wind energy

High potential regions for Windpower plants

Kazakhstan's steppe geography makes it suitable for wind energy applications and the estimated potential of wind energy that can be economically developed is about 760GW.^[18] About 50% of Kazakhstan's territory has average wind speeds suitable for energy generation (4–6 m/s) with the strongest potential in the Caspian Sea, central and northern regions. The most promising individual sites are in the Almaty region in the Djungar(Dzhumgarian)Gates, 600 km northeast of Almaty close to the Xinjiang border and the Chylyk Corridor 100 km east of Almaty. Wind potentials of 525Wm2 in the Djungar Gates and 240Wm² in the Chylyk corridor have been estimated with power production from wind turbines potentially achieving 4400 kW/h/MW and 3200 kW/h/MW respectively.^[19] Currently, the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies selected 10 sites to build large wind power plants (WPP) with total capacity of 1,000 MW with a view to commercial production of electricity in the amount of 2-3 billion kWh. Currently only one wind energy plant is operating in Kazakhstan; the Kordai wind power plant with 1500 kW capacity was launched in December 2011 in Zhambyl region.^[20]

One of Kazakhstan’s power companies, Samruk-Energy JSC, was recently awarded a $94 million loan from the Eurasian Development Bank to build Kazakhstan’s largest wind farm. The project will produce 172 million kilowatt/hours of electrical energy per year, save more than 60 million tons of coal, and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.^[21]

Bioenergy

Kazakhstan has 76.5Mha agricultural land, 10Mha forest and 185Mha steppe grasslands providing abundant biomass wastes and residues which have the potential to generate arrange of bioenergy services.^[22] Kazakhstan produces and exports crops such as wheat (winterandspring), rye(winter), maize (forgrain), barley (winterandspring), oats, millet, buckwheat, rice and pulses, with an average grain yield of 17.5–20 Mt,which equates to roughly 12–14Mt of biomass wastes.^[23] Biomass wastes are currently poorly exploited and only ~10% of the total volume of the residues isused, mostly as a feed additive for livestock; the proportion of rural households using biomass cook stoves for cooking and heating is currently unknown.Organic wastes are also a potential source of energy and at least 400,000 households are known to keep cattle, horsesandsheep.^[9] It has been estimated that electricity generation potential inKazakhstan from biomass is 35 billion kWh per year and heat generation potential is 44 million Gcal per year.^[24] Various external funding agencies(UNDP, GEF, HIVOS Foundation) have supported the development of biogas initiatives including the Biogas Training Centre at the Eco-museum in Karanga(2002–2003)and the ‘Azure Flame’ Central Kazakhstan Biogas Education Centre(2004–2005)however despite this promotion there is only one large scale biogas unit currently in operation in the country which is a 360kWe biogas plant run at Vostok village in the Kostanai region.The Vostok biogas unit consists of two 2400m³ digesters operating with a feedstock of 40 t/day of cow, sheep and camel manure, grain residues and 1t/day of slaughterhouse waste. The plant was installed in 2011 by Karaman-K Ltd. and Zorg Biogas with an aim of delivering 3 million kWh of electricity annually.^[25] Another potential area is the use of biogas, which is produced from the waste of farms and poultry factories. Kazahstan has a significant number of livestock and poultry. Methane production potential of the waste in cattle is more than 85 thousand tons. Potential methane production from waste-water communal services is about 3 million tonnes.^[26]

Barriers to renewable energy

In spite of considerable renewable energy potential there are still significant barriers to address including: low electricity tariffs; transmission losses and inefficient technologies; weak regulatory and legal frameworks to stimulate the use of renewable energy in the electricity sector; persistent governmental body reforms; inadequate levels and quality of scientific support; awareness and information barriers; and a high-risk business environment.^[27]

Renewable energy projects

In 2016, Kazakhstan's capital Astana started testing and implementing energy-saving systems in construction. Thus, the Kazakhstan Centre for Modernisation and Development of Housing and Communal Services moved to a new building equipped with energy-saving wind and solar energy systems.^[28]

See also

• Green Economy in Kazakhstan

References

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22. Pala, C (2009). "Abandoned Soviet farmlands could help offset global warming". Environmental Science Technology. 43 (23): 685–707.
23. "Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)". General summary for the countries of the former Soviet Union. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
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