Renewable energy in Azerbaijan / JAMnews

Renewable energy in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan plans to cooperate with Georgia on the green energy corridor project. This initiative involves transporting renewable energy to European countries via a cable laid at the bottom of the Black Sea.

Recently, Azerbaijan inaugurated several solar and wind power plants. However, according to Natig Jafarli, economist and one of the leaders of the opposition party “Republican Alternative”, sometimes decisions in this industry are guided by fashion, not rationality.

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Green energy pitfalls

“Renewable electricity production around the world, while crucial, sometimes becomes a fad. Sometimes decisions made in line with this trend are far from an organic and rational approach. There are plenty of examples of this in many countries around the world.

Switching to alternative, renewable and environmentally friendly energy is important, but there are some “pitfalls”:

Countries that are unable to independently produce equipment for generating solar and wind energy, its components and software, and do not have human resources, essentially fall into energy dependence. Today there are countries dependent on oil and gas, but in some time there will be countries dependent on the supply of solar panels, wind turbines, their repairs and software.

In addition, the areas where solar and wind power plants are installed are of great importance. Installing solar panels on land suitable for farming raises serious questions.”

Agricultural field for solar panels

“Azerbaijan has also joined in this fashionable trend that is rapidly gaining momentum around the world. The steps taken by the country in this area please organizations and countries closely following the development of this direction, and these projects receive all kinds of support.

Our country’s participation in this trend is not bad; on the contrary, if the approach is systematic, these projects can create additional economic opportunities for the country. New jobs can be created, local experts and production capacity can emerge. However, for this purpose decisions must be correct, systematic and future-oriented.

Recently, news emerged that the government had allocated 940 hectares of land in the Jabrayil district, part of the Eastern Zangezur Economic Region, for the construction of a 240 MW solar power plant.

In other words, nearly 1,000 hectares of land suitable for agriculture will be covered with photovoltaic panels.

27 percent of Azerbaijan’s soil is considered saline. To restore them to agriculture, tens of billions of dollars are needed, which the country does not have. On the route from Baku to Gazakh, these salty, unsuitable for cultivation areas stretch for dozens of kilometers, creating such an uninteresting landscape that it literally puts drivers and passengers to sleep.”

Why not use unsuitable land?

“If solar panels will be installed anyway and alternative energy will be produced, why use the arable land of Karabakh and eastern Zangazur for this?! They can be installed on tens of thousands of hectares, starting from Baku and ending with Kurdamir and Ujar. This would be close to consumers and saline areas would be exploited. Wouldn’t that make sense?

In these matters, it is necessary to increase the participation of society, citizens, in order to find logical models that will satisfy everyone. For example, changes should be made to regulations to speed up the process of installing photovoltaic panels on the roofs of households, private homes and commercial premises through interest-free state loans. In this way, citizens can obtain electricity and sell the surplus to the state or electricity networks – technically speaking, this problem can be easily solved.

I repeat: this important issue should not be just a trend; it must be transformed into a pragmatic, organic and logical state program. We should strive to increase local production and train local staff, so that in 10 years we will not be dependent on foreign countries in this matter and will not lag behind modern energy transformations.”

Renewable energy in Azerbaijan