ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s renewable energy sector demonstrated steady growth in 2024, though energy storage systems remain a key challenge, said experts during a roundtable discussing Kazakhstan’s progress in renewable energy development in 2024 on Dec. 11 in Astana.
Photo credit: Qazaq Green
The roundtable was organized by the Qazaq Green association with the support of the Kazakh Ministry of Energy and Huawei Technologies Kazakhstan.
“In the first 10 months of the current year, energy generation from renewable energy sources in Kazakhstan amounted to 5.6 billion kilowatts per hour, which is 10% more compared to 2023. This shows that the mechanisms that have been introduced in our country are being actively implemented in practice,” said Gulzhan Nalibaeva, CEO of the Settlement and Financial Center for Support of Renewable Energy Sources of the Kazakh Ministry of Energy.
“At present, 148 renewable energy facilities are operating in the country. The share of total generation in Kazakhstan is 6.67%. Currently, in addition to auctioning, large-scale renewable energy projects are being implemented at various stages with foreign investors, including those from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the French Republic and the People’s Republic of China,” she added.
The 148 renewable energy facilities, with a combined installed capacity of 2,903.7 megawatts, include 59 wind farms, 46 solar power plants, 40 hydroelectric plants, and 3 biomass plants.
As of now, the Settlement and Financial Center has concluded 172 contracts for a total installed capacity of 4,050 megawatts.
In 2024, two power plants with a combined installed capacity of 34.5 megawatts were commissioned: a 20-megawatt solar power facility and a 14.9-megawatt hydroelectric power plant, both located in the Almaty Region.
“As I mentioned, this year, a number of important documents have been signed, including intergovernmental agreements on investments. During COP29, a Power Purchase Agreement has been signed with Masdar (UAE) for the construction of a 1-gigawatt wind farm with the installation of 300-megawatt energy storage systems at a two-hour capacity. Additional agreements have also been signed with Total Energy (France) for the realization of a similar project of a one-gigawatt wind power plant paired with a 300-megawatt, two-hour energy storage system,” said Nalibaeva.
Energy storage systems solutions
Ensuring the reliability and consistency of power supply remains a major challenge in integrating renewable energy sources into the power systems, according to Nurlan Kapenov, Qazaq Green board of directors chairman.
“The basic technological principle of sustainable operation of the energy system is precisely the preservation of the balance between generation and constantly changing consumption. The rapid development of biomass and distributed generation, the introduction of electric transportation led to increasing volatility of the schedule of electric load coverage and increased the requirements for traditional generation in terms of their ability to ensure regulation of the energy system. Thus, in the energy system during certain hours, there may be stability failures, grid loading above permissible values, voltage and frequency fluctuations, and a general decrease in the reliability of the power supply. Accordingly, it is necessary to maintain a balance,” said Kapenov.
As a solution, Qazaq Green and Huawei Technologies Kazakhstan presented the results of the first phase of the development of the White Paper on the potential of a battery energy storage system (BESS) in the unified power system of Kazakhstan. The initiative aims to advance solutions that allow energy storage for later use.
“In the White Paper, we will try to reveal the basic issues of energy storage system development, basic concepts of business model application functions, and recommendations on how to build energy storage systems into the realities of the country’s electric power industry. We hope that this work will become a guide for decision-makers and all interested industry experts and will allow making the right decisions and measures to stimulate this segment,” said Kapenov.
Legislative changes
According to Kazakh Mazhilis (lower house of Parliament) Deputy, Duisenbay Turganov, 2024 enabled several legislative amendments to stimulate the development of small-scale projects and the law on thermal power generation.
“First of all, we are talking about electricity storage systems. As of today, the law supporting the use of renewable energy sources has been amended, where for the first time a new concept of electric energy storage systems has been introduced. This is an important step that allows us to develop this system, to hold auctions aimed at selecting a project for the construction of new facilities for renewable energy sources,” said Turganov.
In June 2024, amendments to the law on Supporting the Use of Renewable Energy Sources were adopted, which introduced a new concept of a “small-scale renewable energy facility” at up to 200 kilowatts. Owners of such facilities get the right to use energy for themselves and sell the surplus. The law also provides for loans for the construction, reconstruction and modernization of power grids at the expense of the budget.
“I should note that, unfortunately, in our country, there is no experience in researching the introduction, use and implementation of electric energy storage systems on an industrial scale. At the same time, energy storage is an important element on the way to achieving carbon neutrality,” added Turganov.
