US Stands Ready To Partner With Azerbaijan In Renewable Energy Sphere - Kimberly Harrington

(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 1. The US stands ready to partner with Azerbaijan in renewable energy sphere, Kimberly D. Harrington, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Energy Resources of the US State Department, said in an exclusive interview with Trend , as she has visited Baku to take part in the 10th meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council.

DAS Harrington noted that the US really sees Azerbaijan as having tremendous potential with solar and with wind.

"As I can tell, I was standing out of the Caspian yesterday, and I could feel the wind. It's very, very obvious. Deploying renewables has so many benefits, not just to our decarbonization goals, but it also frees up molecules that might be used in domestic market, to export overseas. There's a lot of benefits, and renewables and supporting renewables is foundational to what we do.

I've been in Baku for a number of days now, so I've had the chance to discuss some of these goals with officials. I was just in a meeting with Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov. We talked a little bit about the green energy corridor concept. We absolutely are interested in learning more and looking to see how we might be able to support these ambitious plans. And I would say, Azerbaijan has pulled off some pretty impressive major infrastructure projects before - Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Southern Gas Corridor. It's not going to be easy to pull off another major green energy corridor. I have to say, these connectors are not going to be easy, but if anyone can prove that the doubters are wrong, it's Azerbaijan, because Azerbaijan has done it in the past," she added.

Harrington noted that expansion of cooperation in renewables is absolutely an area the US is looking forward to expanding with Azerbaijan.

"Domestically in the United States, we've taken a lot of really important measures under the Biden administration to advance the deployment of clean energy, to advance the deployment of renewables. These include underpinning legislation, like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act. These are really turbocharging clean energy research and development in the United States. Minister Shabazov recently had the chance to visit the National Renewable Energy Labs in Colorado, and he discussed ways to increase our cooperation on renewables with our partners from the Department of Energy there. So, as Azerbaijan deploys more renewables, we stand ready to partner, to ensure that these deliverables can immediately deliver electricity to the citizens of Azerbaijan and beyond.

I'd say one area that comes to mind more specifically, though, where we might be able to partner, and which makes a lot of sense given that the UAE just hosted COP and Azerbaijan is about to host COP, is leveraging the partner that the United States has with the United Arab Emirates. It's called the Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy. It was established in 2022, and it aims at catalyzing $100 billion in green energy investment and support for clean energy projects around the globe by 2035," she said.

DAS Harrington believes that given Masdar's partnerships and really committed demonstration to working here in Azerbaijan in the renewables market, the three-way collaboration between the United States, Azerbaijan, and the UAE in this sphere holds a lot of possibilities.

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