The official opening ceremony of the 240 MW Khizi-Absheron wind power plant, constructed by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power, was held on January 8 in Baku, Azerbaijan’s state news agency AZERTAC reported.
Approximately $340 million in foreign investment has been attracted for the project. The plant’s annual electricity generation is expected to reach 1 billion kilowatt-hours, saving 220 million cubic meters of natural gas and preventing the emission of more than 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. The project’s main contractor was PowerChina HuaDong Engineering Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of China’s PowerChina Group.
At the opening ceremony, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said that this is the first renewable power plant built by ACWA Power in Azerbaijan, but not the last one. The company is interested in implementing new projects in cooperation with Azerbaijani state agencies. In particular, the company, as an investor, will implement the Caspian Sea desalination project, the first in Azerbaijan.
Aliyev said that over the past 20 years, the generation capacities in Azerbaijan have increased almost threefold. “Today, our generation capacity stands at approximately 10,000 megawatts, which can rightly be described as a historic record. Given that many new renewable energy generation capacities will be commissioned in the coming years, this figure will certainly increase and will enable us both to meet growing domestic demand and to export electricity in larger volumes.”
According to Aliyev, the geographical location of Azerbaijan is such that it is possible to produce renewable energy in any region. “I am not even talking about the potential of the Caspian Sea. According to international estimates, the wind potential in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea stands at 157 gigawatts. In other words, this process will gain momentum in Azerbaijan in the coming years. Azerbaijan will become a country with a reliable and major electricity generation capacity in the region.”
