(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 26. Azerbaijan has
launched a large-scale work on the implementation of renewable
energy projects throughout the country, with a special focus to the
Karabakh and East Zangazur economic zones.
Since the liberation of those lands from Armenian occupation,
Azerbaijani government has announced the aim to achieve a 30
percent share of renewable energy in the country's total energy mix
by 2030.
At the same time, Azerbaijani officials have repeatedly
expressed the will to launch green electricity exports to Europe,
and have presented several plans in this regard. This is also one
of the pillars of the Memorandum of Understanding on energy
cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU, which was signed in June
this year.
As President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at the
international conference under the motto“Along the Middle
Corridor: Geopolitics, Security and Economy” at ADA University,
Baku, on November 25, Azerbaijan has two projects in renewable
energy in the pipeline already. This will result in 470 megawatt of
wind and solar energy, which will be available approximately by the
end next year. In addition to that, a 230-megawatt solar power
plant project is being carried out in the liberated Jabrayil
district. According to the Head of State, all these will save
Azerbaijan additional gas.
“In other words, we will be able to implement fully the MoU with
the European Commission which we signed in July, but for that we
need to finalize our arrangements with our Turkish friends and I
hope that it will be the case sooner than later,” the president
said.
As Khalid Taimur Akram, Executive Director of the Pakistani
Center for Global & Strategic Studies told trend , there is no doubt
that Azerbaijan can become one of the biggest exporters of green
electricity to Europe in the medium term.
“The country has full potential to become an energy giant, and
the role of new transit routes and corridors is important in that
regard. Azerbaijan is striving to build new land routes for trade
and economic links, which would be sufficient in the country's
efforts to export electricity. There is no doubt that the
directions here are towards Europe, which is very timely,” the
export said.
In this aspect, the launch of new corridors will allow
Azerbaijan in smoothly transferring the renewables to the EU
countries, and other parts of the world, which, in turn, will
increase the country's global reach and market value, given the
high volume of exports, he noted.
While being naturally blessed with reach oil and gas resources,
Azerbaijan does not withhold the development in the renewables
sector. Having liberated its historic territories from Armenian
occupation back in 2020, Azerbaijan has declared that these lands
would be established as net zero zones.
At the same time, along with high solar, wind, and hydro
potential, the assessment in the field of offshore wind power and
possibly hydrogen is also carried out. All this arouses particular
interest from the international partners. Thus, Azerbaijan, while
facilitating efforts in various fields to explore suitable options
for expanding its renewable energy use, aims at securing long-term
energy supplies to its partners.