News & Analysis

Current energy market situation

At the moment, 85.5% of Kazakhstan’s electricity comes from coal-fired plants and 8.7% from hydroelectric sources.  The coal-fired plants are located in north coal-producing regions. Hydroelectric facilities are located mostly along the Irtysh River. Kazakhstan’s southern regions do not have enough energy resources and electricity consumption is covered by import from the Kyrgyz Republic. The transmission and distribution system comprises three networks, two in the north and one in the south, totalling 285,000 km of distribution lines. Of the northern networks, one exports electricity to Russia and the other imports it from Russia. The southern network—connected to the Unified Energy System (UES) of Central Asia—imports electricity from the Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Current solar market situation and large scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants under construction

Kazakhstan is a very promising emerging market for photovoltaic (solar PV) energy investments amongst CIS countries according to Kazakhstan Solar PV Market Outlook 2015 – 2025. With the introduction of support mechanisms in the law in 2009, 2010, 2012 with the subsequent amendments in 2013 and newly approved FIT in June 2014, Kazakhstan photovoltaic energy market is supposed to start growing in next years. Two large scale photovoltaic (solar PV) power plants are under construction in Kazakhstan at the moment. German company Promondis Kazakhstan has started the construction of largest solar PV power plant in the country with a total projected capacity of 75 MW in the Southern Kazakhstan province, whilst тhe EBRD is considering financing a 50 MW ground-mounted solar PV power plant, which is under construction in the Zhambyl region, Southern Kazakhstan and scheduled for commercial operation at the end of June 2015.  

A feed-in tariff (FIT) about solar energy in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has also adopted at the end of August 2013 a new feed-in tariff law – “On Supporting the Use of Renewable Energy Sources” – that will provide support to renewable energy producers.  The EBRD has worked with the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies and the Ministry of Environmental Protection to help develop various aspects of the new legislation, beginning with the model for determining the feed-in tariffs. The cost of the programme is estimated at KZT1,100 bn (€ 5.3bn).

The long and much anticipated feed-in tariffs for solar energy proposed by Ministry of Environment and Water Resources of Kazakhstan have been approved from the Government on 12 June 2014 and are equal to approximately € 0.145/KWh (KZT 34.61/KWh) and 15 years PPA period are expected to pave the way for fast further growth of solar PV market in Kazakhstan according to Kazakhstan Photovoltaic (Solar PV) Market Outlook 2015 – 2025

List of announced solar projects in Kazakhstan by 15 June 2015

In Kazakhstan, investors and project developers have announced investment intentions to put into operation by 2020 for over 1,750 MW (1.75 GW) wind projects and over 700 MW (0.7 GW) solar PV projects. If you need a detailed list with announced solar PV projects in the country, including company names, projects sizes and other data, please do not hesitate to contact the research and analysis department of Renewable Market Watch at services@renewablemarketwatch.com

Profile of electricity consumption and production in the country

The industry is the key consumer of electricity for the country (oil industry, metallurgy, mining, chemical industry, energy and machine construction), followed by households and transportation industry. The Kazakh economy is overall more energy-intensive than the economies of the countries in the EU. Wind and solar electricity account for less than 0.03 % of all electrify capacity. Interconnections with CIS countries have improved, stabilizing the power system.

More information about this very promising solar market you may read here: Kazakhstan Photovoltaic (Solar PV) Market Outlook 2015 – 2025