Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan, the country rich of natural recourses, has put into operation the first turbine of the Yeni Yashma wind farm and plans to commission more.

In total, it is planned to commission 20 such turbines, said Jamil Malikov, the deputy head of the Azerbaijani State Agency for Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources.

“We have completed the start-and-adjustment work at the wind farm and starting the staged launch of the turbines with 2.5-megawatt capacity each,” he said on May 28.

Preliminary operation of the first turbine is underway, said Malikov. “On average, we will need three days for each turbine in order to set their working parameters. That’s to say, we will commission one turbine every three days.’

Malikov added that at present, the turbine’s capacity nears 1 megawatt per hour and for today, it has already generated around 5,000 kilowatt-hours that were directed to the general power supply system.

Commissioning of the wind farm is the next step towards the development of alternative energy sphere in Azerbaijan.

“We increase the capacity of renewable energy sources every day, every month and every year and thereby ensure storing gas and petroleum products to generate electricity and increase the electricity export potential of our country,” Malikov added.

Located in Khizi region, north of Azerbaijan, the production capacity of Yeni Yashma wind farm is 50 megawatt.

Wind power is safe and limitless, but the stumbling stone here is finances as it too costly to construct all the necessary wind turbines and build a system which transmit energy to all consumers.

It is planned to construct up to 100 facilities for generating alternative electricity in Azerbaijan within 5 years, the preliminary studies said.

The volume of investments made in the development of the alternative energy sphere in the country reached 63.6 million manats in 2014.

Of this volume, 34.9 million manats accounted for the development of the solar energy sphere and 28.7 million manats towards wind power. In total, around 800 million manats have been invested in this sphere in Azerbaijan since 2000.

The total potential of alternative and renewable energy sources in the country exceeds 12,000 megawatts. Most of the country's capacity in this area accounts for solar energy, and this potential is estimated to stand at 5,000 megawatts.

Wind energy accounts for 4,500 megawatts, biomass - 1,500 megawatts, geothermal energy - 800 megawatts, and the remaining 350 megawatts from small hydro power plants.

Despite the fact, that solar power is most profitable in comparison with other alternative resources in Azerbaijan now, the difference between solar and wind energy is not drastic.

Moreover, a wind park project on the Azerbaijani part of the Caspian Sea may eliminate this distinction. The country has started work on the development of the area of the Caspian Sea to create wind farms there this year.

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

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