Azerbaijan plans to increase the share of alternative and renewable energy sources in the country’s energy balance from the current 16% to 20% until 2020, Rauf Gurbanov, deputy head of department of economy and governmental programs at the State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy, said.
Gurbanov noted that Azerbaijan had a great potential to increase production in the sphere of alternative energy.
“The potential of renewable energy in the country is more than 25,300 megawatt, which allows producing 62.8 billion kilowatt/hours of electricity per year”, he said.
Currently, the capacity of Azerbaijan’s energy system is about 7,200 megawatts.
Total potential of alternative and renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan exceeds 12,000 megawatts.
A major part of the country’s capacity in this area accounts for solar energy and this potential is estimated at 5,000 megawatts.
Meanwhile, 4,500 megawatts accounts for wind power, 1,500 megawatts – for biomass, 800 megawatts – for geothermal energy, and the remaining 350 megawatts – for the potential of small hydro power plants (HPP). (Trend/Business World Magazine)