Azerbaijan actively developing renewables to export green energy, increase gas supplies to Europe - President Aliyev

BAKU. June 24 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan is actively developing production of electricity from renewables to export green energy and increase gas supplies to Europe, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.

"Azerbaijan itself will not need as much renewable energy as we plan to produce. So, our target is export and also to have a very sophisticated approach on using renewables to a maximum degree to produce electricity and saving natural gas, sending it to those who need it now, primarily in Europe," Aliyev said in an interview with Euronews on Saturday.

The Masdar company based in the United Arab Emirates is Azerbaijan's strategic partner in the development of renewable energy sources, "we have also ACWA Power, BP among our investors and many more companies from different countries, which are planning to work with us," he said.

Azerbaijan needs to strengthen its national power greed to export energy produced from renewables, he said. "Another challenge is with respect to the transmission lines, because here we need to work actively with our neighbors [for export]," he said.

Azerbaijan is currently pursuing an active policy in the development of green energy, he said.

"Masdar is our strategic partner in the area of renewable energy. Last October, we already inaugurated the first solar power station of 230 megawatts, and held today [in June 2024] a groundbreaking ceremony for three solar and wind stations with total capacity of one gigawatt. And this is only the beginning. Because we plan to implement all the contracts, memorandums of understanding [in the renewables sector], and that means up to ten gigawatts in mid-term and up to five gigawatts until 2030. That's our target," the president said.

Azerbaijan has good potential to produce electricity from renewables, he said. "There is good investment climate. It really demonstrates how a country, which generated wealth from fossil fuel now, is channeling this wealth into renewable energy. As a host country of COP29, this is also our obligation to be among the frontrunners on green transition," he said.

Azerbaijan started exporting gas to Europe on December 31, 2020. The six countries in Europe, namely Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Serbia, buy gas from Azerbaijan at present. Azerbaijan supplied 11.8 bcm of gas in 2023, and the amount of supplies will exceed 12 bcm in 2024. Azerbaijan will supply at least 20 bcm of gas to Europe in 2027.