Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Creation of a technical committee in charge of alternative energy sources is under development in energy-rich Azerbaijan.

The State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents is pushing forward the initiative.

At present, the Committee and the Azerbaijan State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources are working together to establish the committee.

"The work is underway on the creation of a new technical committee. This process will be accomplished in the near future," the State Committee said.

Azerbaijan has started to develop alternative energy sources in recent years. To expand this sphere, the country has prepared a national strategy for the development of alternative and renewable energy sources up to 2020.

Over 100 million manats ($127 million) has been invested from the public fund in the development of alternative and renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan.

Most of the country's capacities in this area fall on solar energy, and the capacity is estimated at 5,000 megawatts. Some 4,500 MW fall on wind energy, biomass - 1,500 MW, geothermal energy - 800 MW, while the remaining 350 MW is a potential for small hydro power plants.

The total capacity of alternative and renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan exceeds 12,000 megawatts.

Currently, the share of alternative energy sources in Azerbaijan is less than 1 percent, and accounts for small hydro power plants. The share of alternative energy sources is planned to increase to 20 percent of the total volume of energy consumption in Azerbaijan by 2020, which requires 7 billion manats ($8.9 billion) of investment.

The country has created favorable conditions for the development of this new field for Azerbaijan.

The government plans to build up to 100 objects for alternative energy in the next 5 years.

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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

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