By Trend

Azerbaijan has launched a large-scale work on the implementation of renewable energy projects throughout the country, with a special focus to the Karabakh and East Zangazur economic zones.

Since the liberation of those lands from Armenian occupation, Azerbaijani government has announced the aim to achieve a 30 percent share of renewable energy in the country’s total energy mix by 2030.

At the same time, Azerbaijani officials have repeatedly expressed the will to launch green electricity exports to Europe, and have presented several plans in this regard. This is also one of the pillars of the Memorandum of Understanding on energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU, which was signed in June this year.

As President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at the international conference under the motto “Along the Middle Corridor: Geopolitics, Security and Economy” at ADA University, Baku, on November 25, Azerbaijan has two projects in renewable energy in the pipeline already. This will result in 470 megawatt of wind and solar energy, which will be available approximately by the end next year. In addition to that, a 230-megawatt solar power plant project is being carried out in the liberated Jabrayil district. According to the Head of State, all these will save Azerbaijan additional gas.

“In other words, we will be able to implement fully the MoU with the European Commission which we signed in July, but for that we need to finalize our arrangements with our Turkish friends and I hope that it will be the case sooner than later,” the president said.

As Khalid Taimur Akram, Executive Director of the Pakistani Center for Global & Strategic Studies told Trend, there is no doubt that Azerbaijan can become one of the biggest exporters of green electricity to Europe in the medium term.

“The country has full potential to become an energy giant, and the role of new transit routes and corridors is important in that regard. Azerbaijan is striving to build new land routes for trade and economic links, which would be sufficient in the country’s efforts to export electricity. There is no doubt that the directions here are towards Europe, which is very timely,” the export said.

In this aspect, the launch of new corridors will allow Azerbaijan in smoothly transferring the renewables to the EU countries, and other parts of the world, which, in turn, will increase the country’s global reach and market value, given the high volume of exports, he noted.

While being naturally blessed with reach oil and gas resources, Azerbaijan does not withhold the development in the renewables sector. Having liberated its historic territories from Armenian occupation back in 2020, Azerbaijan has declared that these lands would be established as net zero zones.

At the same time, along with high solar, wind, and hydro potential, the assessment in the field of offshore wind power and possibly hydrogen is also carried out. All this arouses particular interest from the international partners. Thus, Azerbaijan, while facilitating efforts in various fields to explore suitable options for expanding its renewable energy use, aims at securing long-term energy supplies to its partners.