Kazakhstan Should Switch from Coal to Renewable Energy Sources

Осы мақаланың қазақша нұсқасын оқыңыз.

Читайте этот материал на русском.

Kazakhstan is highly dependent on coal for its electricity generation and routinely faces shortages due to outdated infrastructure. One of the solutions that the government has found was to increase the share of gas in the electricity sector. Yet, Kazakhstan could have the potential to increase the share of clean wind and solar electricity sources at least fourfold to 20% by 2030, above the current target of 15%, reducing coal dependence and increasing the reliability of the grid and building an independent power generation sector.

The shortage of electricity in Kazakhstan is mostly compensated by supplies from Russia. Monopolist Inter RAO sells electricity to Kazakhstan at an inflated price, almost twice as high as the locally generated power. Between July-December 2023, Kazakhstan imported more than 3 billion kWh of Russian electricity worth $172 million. In the autumn-winter period, the deficit was about 1 GW. The ministry of energy predicts that the deficit will grow to 6.2 GW by 2030.

Today, the electricity generation sector in Kazakhstan is characterized by coal dependence (67%), high rates of equipment wear and tear (56%), and electricity losses across the grid (30%). According to the government action plan for the development of the electricity generation sector, Kazakhstan could increase its coal and gas generation capacity to 35 MW through the reconstruction and expansion of existing power plants.

Power plants with a total capacity of at least 6 GW are being planned. In late 2023, plans for 3.4 GW of the total were announced, as well as 6 GW of gas capacity. The three coal-fired power plants that were announced in Kokshetau, Oskemen, and Semey will be built by the Russian company Inter RAO (and partly paid by Kazakhstan’s Single Pension Fund), the same monopolist which sells Kazakhstan electricity at an inflated price.

This decision is partly explained by the fact that Russia remains the only possible source of financing for coal-fired thermal power plants against the backdrop of a global policy of divestment from coal in an effort to achieve carbon neutrality. China, a major funder of coal projects overseas, has also halted future foreign coal funding.

!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r