Clean energy surge: Kazakhstan’s renewable facilities power up

Renewable energy facilities generated 18% more electricity year-on-year / Photo: Shutterstock, photo editor: Arthur Aleskerov

In the first nine months of 2024, facilities using renewable energy sources (RES) generated 5.7 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, accounting for 6.67% of total production. This represents an 18% increase year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.

Out of the 5.7 billion kWh generated, the breakdown by energy source is as follows:

Wind farms: 3.2 billion kWh
Small hydroelectric power plants: 944 million kWh
Solar power plants: 1.6 billion kWh
Biopower plants: 56,000 kWh.

For comparison, in 2023, RES facilities generated a total of 6.6 billion kWh of electricity, which accounted for 5.92% of total output. In the first six months of 2024, this figure reached 3.8 billion kWh or 6.47%.

Currently, the total capacity of all RES facilities in Kazakhstan is 2.9 gigawatts (GW), with 59 wind farms contributing 1.4 GW.

The country’s authorities aim to increase the RES capacity by 26.5 GW by 2035, which includes plans to commission wind farms totaling 9 GW. Five companies — Masdar, TotalEnergies, ACWA Power, Unigreen Energy and China Power International Holding — will each construct a 1-GW wind farm. Additionally, eight smaller wind power plants, ranging from 200 to 1,100 megawatts (MW), will be launched across various regions of the country.

Between 2027 and 2035, large hydropower plants with a total capacity of 1.8 GW and small hydropower plants with a capacity of 300 MW will also be commissioned. Moreover, 2.2 GW of biogas power plants and 500 MW of solar power plants are planned for construction.