Azerbaijan’s current potential in green energy production is about 200 GW, Javid Abdullayev, the Director of the Azerbaijan Renewable Energy Agency (AREA) under the Ministry of Energy said Friday.
Speaking during the seminar themed ‘Green Hydrogen – Path to Decarbonization,’ Abdullayev also announced Azerbaijan’s plans to increase the share of renewable energy in electricity generation to 30% percent by 2030.
Per Abdullayev, Azerbaijan signed last December an agreement with Georgia, Hungary, and Romania that will allow supplying Europe with up to four gigawatts of green energy.
The large renewable energy potential of Azerbaijan was also mentioned by the Azeri President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev during his talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Aliyev said during the joint press conference that Azerbaijan’s technical potential for offshore wind energy in the Caspian Sea alone is equal to 157 gigawatts – as well as clean hydrogen – pointing out that he’s convinced Azerbaijan will export not only natural gas but also green energy to Europe in the future and noting that several contracts had already been signed.
Baku has signed relevant deals with Masdar and Fortescue Industries with a total installed capacity of 22GW, about 16 GW of which account for offshore wind energy production. For comparison, Azerbaijan’s entire installed capacity of power production – including renewable and non-renewable – is 8 GW.
Additionally, ACWA Power has also signed an agreement with the Azeri Ministry of Energy on the construction of an offshore wind farm.
The country’s Caspian Sea sector opens major opportunities and the Azeri government has already prepared an offshore wind map in cooperation with the British consulting company for renewable energy BVG Associates.
As part of a broader energy transition agenda, Azerbaijan is also looking at the opportunity to decarbonize in line with the carbon reduction obligations under international frameworks, such as the 2015 Paris agreement.
