ASTANA – Eni’s Plenitude unveiled a 50-megawatt solar power plant operated by Arm Wind company, its local renewable subsidiary, in the Turkistan Region on Sept. 27. This is the company’s first solar project and the third renewable project in the country.
Alex Stillavato
During an interview with The Astana Times, Alex Stillavato, the Managing Director of Arm Wind company owned by Plenitude operating in the renewables sector in Kazakhstan, spoke about the project and how it would contribute to the country’s green agenda.
Congratulations on the inauguration of Arm Wind’s third project in Kazakhstan. Can you tell us more about the significance of this project for the country’s renewable energy sector?
Thank you very much for your kind words. Plenitude, a company 100% owned by Eni, operates in the renewable energy sector in Kazakhstan through its subsidiary Arm Wind with a total operating capacity of about 150 megawatt. We are very proud to announce our third project in Kazakhstan today and our first solar one in the country. With an installed capacity of 50 megawatt, the plant will generate clean solar energy for the Turkistan Region and will contribute to Kazakhstan’s ongoing energy transition process and carbon neutrality goals.
Photo credit: Arm Wind company.
Shaulder power plant is an example of our commitment to develop our portfolio of projects in the electricity market in the country. Moreover, such technological advanced projects create job opportunities for highly skilled professionals, benefitting the local territory.
Could you provide an overview of the key features and uniqueness of this new solar project?
Thanks to cutting-edge technologies the farm, spanning 100 hectares of land, produces more than 90 gigawatt hour (GWh) of electricity annually and features over 93,000 solar panels.
Moreover, in our vision it is important to work in partnership with industry leaders, choosing the best market solutions. In this power plant we utilize a last generation tracking system with AI algorithms which automatically follows the sun and provides an additional 40% of daily generation. The PV modules integrate silicon wafers, multi-busbar and half-cut cell technologies. Central inverters utilize advanced three-level technology with average efficiency of around 99%.
Nevertheless, these results can be achieved not only through the best technologies, but also thanks to the advanced professionals’ skills and the result-driven mindset of our team who turns invisible things to visible.
Arm Wind already has 2 wind energy projects in Kazakhstan: Badamsha-1 and Badamsha-2. How do you envision Arm Wind’s contribution to the country’s broader renewable energy goals?
Shaulder 50 megawatt installed capacity is additional to the operating capacity of about 100 megawatt of our two wind plants, Badamsha-1 and Badamsha-2, site in the Aktobe Region. In the context of Kazakhstan’s geographical and climatic conditions, the renewables sector is naturally growing and, we believe, is becoming strategically important in terms of energy security and access to sustainable electricity.
What message would you like to convey to the people of Kazakhstan and the international community regarding the role of renewable energy in addressing global energy challenges and promoting sustainability?
All those who work in renewables today are important actors of an increasingly sustainable reality, facing the global energy challenges with strategic vision, specific skills and technological innovation. When we cut the ribbon during the inauguration of our projects, we feel a great satisfaction for the objective achieved, like today, and this is one of the reasons why we move on brick-by-brick, in our case, solar panel-by-solar panel, turbine after turbine.
