Tag Archives: solar

Uzbekistan joins IRENA

TASHKENT, AUG. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental organisation set up to help member countries strengthen their sources of green power. IRENA has 152 members. Uzbekistan has previously shied away from joining international organisations. Under the presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, though, it has become open to international cooperation.

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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

EBRD to find solar park in Kazakhstan

JUNE 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — The EBRD is set to finance the construction of a second solar power park in southern Kazakhstan, media reported. The EBRD will give a loan of $45m for the solar power park, the Clean Technology Fund will give $10m and the owners of the field, not named by media, will stump up another $80m. After the construction of Burnoye Solar 2, it will constitute one of the biggest solar power fields in Europe or Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

 

Armenia to produce Solar panel

FEB. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia will start producing solar panels later this year under a government-sponsored scheme designed to give solar-power a boost in the country, media reported quoting Hayk Harutyunyan, the deputy energy infrastructure and natural resources minister. He said that 50 jobs will be created at the plant which will begin production in Q3 2017.

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(News report from Issue No. 318, published on Feb.24 2017)

China to build solar plant in Uzbekistan

JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Zhuhai Singyes Green Building Technology, a Chinese company, won a tender at the end of 2016 to build a solar panel field in southern Uzbekistan, state-run Uzbekenergo told the Trend news agency. Uzbekistan has been looking to boost its renewable energy capacity and has been increasingly turning to solar power.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

EBRD loans Kazakhstan €200m to develop renewables

ALMATY, DEC. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) pledged to give Kazakh businessmen 200m euros to improve the country’s renewable energy sector.

For the EBRD the motivation is to boost Kazakhstan’s green energy production. Solar and wind generate only around 1% of Kazakhstan’s power at the moment. Hydro produces around 13% of its power and the rest is generated by smoke belching coal-powered stations.

“Once all the projects come on- stream, annual CO2 emissions are expected to reduce by about 600,000 tonnes, which would help the country to achieve its commitments to cut emissions under the Paris climate agreement,” the EBRD said in a statement.

The 2015 Paris Agreement was a global deal to cut carbon emissions.

Kazakhstan may once have turned its nose up at taking EBRD cash to produce green energy. Now, though, it is happy to go along with the concept. It is struggling to see off a steep economic downturn that has hit its revenues. Oil and gas are its major exports but prices have halved.

And, alongside a fall in revenues, Kazakhstan also needs to boost power. Its population has swelled and grown richer, demanding more power.

It still needs to replace a nuclear power station that was decommissioned in the 1990s. Plans to build a replacement have been scrapped for the time being and a thermal power plant that was being built on the shores of Lake Balkhash with South Korea has also been ditched this year because it was too expensive.

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(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)

Uzbekistan signs solar tech contract with China

DEC. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — China’s Singyes Solar Technologies won a contract to design, build and operate a 100MW solar farm in Uzbekistan, media reported. The $147m project, located near Samarkand, is the biggest overseas project won by Singyes. State- owned Uzbekenergo is the client, although the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is the main financier of the project. The ADB wants Uzbekistan to generate more of its power via renewable energy.

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(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)

 

Russian company launches Bukhara power station

APRIL 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Eriell, a Russian oil service company, and Enesol, a UAE-based renewable energy company, said they have launched a 1.2MW mobile solar station, the first of its kind in the Commonwealth of Independent States to power Lukoil’s upstream operations in Kandym, near the border with Turkmenistan. Eriell is one of Lukoil’s largest suppliers in Uzbekistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 275, published on  April 8 2016)

Uzbekistan boosts solar sector

DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek government has signed a decree that will allow people and small businesses to sell electricity they generate via solar panels to the state for the first time, media reported.

Potentially this edict is a small scale way of giving private entrepre- neurship a boost. As the website norma.uz reported earlier this year, there are a number of small businesses producing solar power electricity in Uzbekistan.

With its long, hot, cloudless summers, Uzbekistan is ripe for solar power.

Earlier this year, Uzbekistan launched a $700m project to build three solar panel farms to generate electricity.

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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Azerbaijan to finance solar plants in Germany and Turkey

OCT. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Akim Badalov, head Azerbaijan’s State Agency on Renewable Energy sources, said Azerbaijan will finance the construction of two small solar power plants in Germany and Turkey. The capacity of the prospective solar plant in Germany is 10 megawatts, according to the Trend news agency. Although still marginal, Azerbaijan’s interest in renewable energy has grown steadily in recent years.

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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)

Kazakh President snubs green energy

SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev hinted at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he may not be as enamoured with green energy as he has suggested.

This is important because Kazakhstan’s government has spent time and money promoting itself as a standard bearer for Green Energy, including devoting much of the sales pitch of its centrepiece event EXPO-2017 in Astana to it.

“I personally do not believe in alternative energy, such as wind, and solar,” media quoted Mr Nazarbayev as saying after meeting Mr Putin in Atyrau on the Caspian Sea coast.

“I think the shale euphoria also does not make much sense. Oil and gas are our main horses and we do not need to be afraid that they are fossil fuels.”

This view may not be that surprising, afterall the economies of both Kazakhstan and Russia are based on oil and gas exports.

Even so, Kazakhstan has given the impression it wants to move on from its reliance on oil and gas for its wealth.

Throughout Kazakhstan’s cities advertise EXPO-2017 with posters carrying the slogan ‘The Energy of the Future’ against a background of a green valley filled with wind turbines and solar panels.

Kazakhstan’s future energy policy is further complicated because it has agreed a deal with Russia to build a new nuclear power station.

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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)