Kazakhstan to Approve Five-Year Schedule of Renewable Energy Auctions with Energy Storage Systems
The Ministry of Energy plans to approve a five-year schedule of renewable energy source (RES) auctions with energy storage systems (ESS). This was reported by Deputy Minister of Energy Zhandos Nurmaganbetov in his report at the ministry's expanded board meeting in Astana.
"To fulfill the President's instruction to achieve a 15% share of renewables by 2030, it is planned to approve a 5-year schedule of RES auctions with ESS, as well as the construction of wind power plants with ESS together with major companies Masdar, Total, and Acwa Power," the Deputy Minister said.
Last year, projects for the construction of RES facilities were determined at auctions in Kazakhstan.
"At the 2022 RES auctions, 10 RES projects with a total capacity of 440 MW were selected, of which 400 MW were wind power plants and 40 MW were solar power plants. A historically minimum price was obtained for wind power plants – 12.49 KZT, less than 3 US cents per kWh, which is close to a world record," noted Zhandos Nurmaganbetov.
According to the ministry's forecast, in 2023 the volume of electricity generation by RES facilities will reach 5%. Based on the results of 2022, this figure amounted to 5.11 billion kWh.
Last year, 12 RES facilities with a total capacity of 385 MW and total investments of 180 billion KZT were commissioned.
In November, an intergovernmental agreement was signed with France for the construction of a wind power plant with 1 GW storage capacity (Total). An agreement on the principles for building a 1 GW wind power plant (Masdar) was also signed.
