The Senate convened a parliamentary commission meeting to oversee the progress of national sustainable development goals in Kazakhstan. The focus was on "Development of alternative energy sources and green technologies," with Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliev providing a report on the renewable energy sector's status and future plans, QazMonitor reports citing the press service of the Ministry of Energy.
Key takeaways: According to the Minister, by the end of 2023 regions in Kazakhstan were fully covered for uninterrupted power supply.
Electric power generation in Kazakhstan is carried out by 222 power plants, of which 146 are renewable energy facilities with a total capacity of 2.8 GW.
In 2023, electrical power consumption amounted to 115 billion kWh (compared to 112.9 billion kWh in 2022), and the production of electrical energy totaled 112.8 billion kWh (consistent with 112.8 billion kWh in 2022).
Imports of electrical energy from neighboring countries amounted to 3.4 billion kWh, with exports totaling 1.4 billion kWh. The forecast generation for 2024 is 115 billion kWh.
RES: Renewable energy has shown steady growth and its installed capacity has increased by more than 16 times since 2014 (from 178 MW in 2014 to 2,868 MW in 2023).
At the end of 2023, the volume of electricity generated by renewable energy facilities amounted to 6.675 billion kWh.
The breakdown by the source is as follows:
wind power plants — 3,824.99 million kWh
solar power plants — 1,853.95 million kWh
hydroelectric power plants — 993.87 million kWh
biopower plants — 2.71 million kWh.
Overall, renewable energy sources accounted for 5.92% of the total electric energy produced in Kazakhstan. When taking into account large hydroelectric power stations it amounted to 13.7%.
To achieve a 15% share of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) by 2030 and a 50% share (including alternative energy) of RES by 2050, the Ministry will ensure the holding of annual auctions and the implementation of large-scale projects with strategic investors.
“Large-scale RES projects are currently at various stages of development. The commissioning of five large renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 5 GW is planned for 2029-2030,”