Azerbaijan is hoping China can play a big role in helping Baku fulfill its ambitions of building a “green energy corridor” to Europe.
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Azerbaijani officials and representatives of China’s Datang Overseas Investment Co. signed a deal on November 12 covering the construction of a 100 Megawatt solar power plant. The sides also agreed to explore the development of offshore wind power, energy storage systems, and the implementation of technical training programs.
The solar farm will be situated in the Gobustan District south of Baku, with a target completion date for the second half of 2026. China’s Jinko Solar announced that it will supply solar panels for the plant, while Turkey’s EPRA Energy has confirmed that it has conducted grid connection, grid code compliance, and power quality analyses for the project.
The Datang deal is an outgrowth of Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev’s April visit to Beijing, which saw the signing of six separate cooperation agreements covering the potential development of renewable energy projects in Azerbaijan.
Few details have been confirmed about the offshore wind project, which potentially could generate 2 Gigawatts of power annually. Following the signing of the agreement for the 100 MW solar plant, the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry said only that discussions had covered “technical and economic issues necessary for the implementation of offshore wind energy and green energy corridor projects.”
The ministry added that it discussed studies with Datang on the “transportation and installation of wind turbines, organization of local production of equipment, submarine cables, energy transmission and system regulation.”
The offshore wind farm is envisioned as catalyzing the planned corridor spanning the Caspian and Black seas, connecting Central Asia to Europe. Baku is partnering with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on a trans-Caspian power line, and with Georgia, Romania and Hungary on a cable under the Black Sea.
The corridor is touted as an alternate source of power that can reduce the European Union’s reliance on natural gas, especially Russian imports, while also potentially helping Brussels meet its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The green energy corridor concept received a boost in October when the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) announced it would be assessing the feasibility of the planned transmission line across the Black Sea.
On November 14, the ministers from Georgia, Romania, and Hungary, and representatives from Bulgaria and several European energy companies met with Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to discuss feasibility studies for the corridor project.
Although it is moving forward, the realization of the corridor still hinges on whether the project is deemed commercially viable. European markets do have other options for power imports, including a long-standing interest in vast solar generation projects in the Sahara Desert.
Baku’s aims are far from altruistic. As well as earning revenue from any power it exports to Europe, the green energy corridor will also help increase domestic electricity supplies, easing the challenge faced by Azerbaijani officials to keep pace with the country’s growing power needs.
An increase in renewable power generation will also benefit Baku by potentially freeing up volumes of gas currently used to generate power to instead be exported to the EU. That would improve the odds that Baku meets the terms of a 2022 agreement to double gas exports to the EU to 20 billion cubic meters per year by 2027. Brussels has pledged to help Azerbaijan develop its renewable energy potential.
By Eurasianet
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