Tuesday 11 April 2023

‘Kazakhstan will miss its 2030 renewable target’

Kazakhstan is not on track to achieve its 2030 renewable energy target due to a lack of flexibility in generation.

That’s according to GlobalData, which has said that the Central Asian nation will fall short of its decade-end aim to have 15% of its electricity made from clean energy.

This target is a recent upgrade on the previous push for 10% renewables by 2030 but its reliance on thermal power will make this unachievable.

Thermal, sometimes accompanied with coal, accounted for 80.1% of Kazakhstan’s installed capacity and 86.6% of the annual generation in 2022.

Coal alone made up 59.5% of installed capacity and 64.5% of the total annual generation.

The report also alleges that due to the use of old technology from the Soviet era, its energy intensity and lack of efficiency is too high.

This applies mainly to the generation and transmission sectors of its energy mix.

The cheap availability of thermal has left ‘untapped potential’ for renewables in the country, GlobalData stresses – but there has been a recent focus on solar and wind.

Within the next 12 years, the nation expects 3.1GW of solar to be installed, with 2.9GW of offshore wind.

Contributing analyst to the report, Attaurrahman Ojindaram Saibasan, said: “Kazakhstan should look to upgrade its national grid to make it more sustainable, independent and adaptable to intermittent renewable production.

“The Kazakh government should look to exploit the untapped wind and solar PV potential in the country. Auctions are key to renewable power development; the country should look to make the scheme more attractive to bring in foreign investments and bring in advanced technology to achieve optimal efficiency from renewable power plants.”