Being one of the key stakeholders in support of renewable energy (RES) projects, the Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) seeks to expand the portfolio of RES projects and is ready to co-finance the creation of green capacity of Kazakhstan’s electricity industry, a representative of DBK has reported.
According to the official, Kazakhstan’s potential for wind energy and solar energy exceeds current consumption in the country.
Based on some estimates, country’s potential for solar energy production ranges from 3.9 to 5.4 billion WH per year, whereas the “ceiling” of wind power is 920 billion kWh per year.
Currently, 90 RES facilities of 1,050 MW of capacity are operating in Kazakhstan including 19 wind parks (283.8 MW), 31 solar parks (541.7 MW), 37 hydropower plants (222.2 MW) and three biopower plants. The number of RES facilities is to be increased from 90 to 108 with the total capacity of 1,655 MW this year.
DBK participates in RES projects under the project financing scheme: investors lend to the project on the condition that the main source of repayment of borrowed funds are cash flows from the project. An important point is that funding is provided in Kazakh national currency (tenge), which is critical for the project, cash flows of which are also denominated in tenge.
So far, DBK has implemented four projects in renewable energy: Astana Expo-2017 wind-power station with a capacity of 50 MW and a cost of 44 billion tenge ($115.9 million), solar power station in the Kapchagay district of Almaty region with a capacity of 100 MW and the cost of 26.3 billion tenge ($69.3 million), Zhylga Solar Energy Plant in Turkestan region of 20 MW capacity and the cost is 13 billion ($34.2 million), Turgusun-1 hydroelectric power station in the East Kazakhstan region with the capacity of 25 MW worth 13.4 billion tenge ($35.3 million).
As noted by Chairman of the Management Board of the Development Bank Abay Sarkulov, active participation of foreign investors in the implementation of RES projects was made possible thanks to the legal framework adopted by Kazakhstan’s government. (Trend/Business World Magazine)
