In Nursultan, Kazakhstan’s gleaming new capital, even monuments honoring the past look toward the future. My guide Yunur points to one of them.
“Now, we’re looking to the monument Baiterek.”
Baiterek Tower is one of the city’s tallest structures and a popular tourist destination. It looks like a supersized tree topped with a golden globe. A globe with special significance.
“Now you can see that golden sphere, which represents to us like the sun, which shines to the future.”
It’s a fitting monument for a country beginning to harness the sun to build that future, one increasingly defined by solar power.
In just five short years, solar power capacity has catapulted to 300 megawatts nationwide, and if you add other renewables like wind and hydropower, that number exceeds 700 megawatts, enough power to supply around 200,000 families in Kazakhstan.
To understand just how remarkable this is, you have to know the context. Fossil fuels reign supreme in this country for one simple reason: geography.
“Kazakhstan has one of the biggest territories in the world. We have the ninth largest territory in the world, and we have almost all the chemical elements of the periodic table.”
Almost every chemical on the periodic table.
That’s Nurlan Kapenov, head of the national solar association. Since the country’s independence in 1991, he says Kazakhstan has relied heavily on its store of fossil fuels—including the largest coal reserves in Central Asia—to power an expanding economy.
“For Kazakhstan, historically, most electricity generation is based on coal. More than 80% of power production is coal power plants.”
According to the World Bank, Kazakhstan has rocketed from lower-middle-income to upper-middle-income status in just under two decades. But such meteoric growth has come at a cost. The nation is the world’s 19th-largest greenhouse gas emitter, with 82% of emissions coming from its energy sector.
It’s a mixed blessing that worries Kapenov, a father of four.
“I'm afraid that for example after 40 years my grandson will come to me and he will ask, ‘Grandpa, what did you do the last 50 years? Why did you pollute everything that is possible in Kazakhstan? What was your aim?”
So Kapenov set out to make a difference. Starting in 2014, he joined forces with the Climate Investment Funds, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and other financing partners to help build Kazakhstan’s first large-scale solar plant.
Many doubted it could even happen. Kapenov continues in Russian.
“Actually, there were quite a lot of people at the time who told us we wouldn't be able to complete the project or obtain the income that we wanted to obtain.”
But complete it, they did. The Burnoye Solar Plant—sprawling across more than 160 acres and pumping up to 100 megawatts of clean power—was built in 2015. It’s located in Zhambyl, near Kazakhstan’s border with Kyrgyzstan, an area known to be energy-poor but sunshine-rich.
Difficult but necessary regulatory reforms were critical to getting the plant online. Using resources from the Climate Investment Funds and its partners, Kazakhstan introduced what’s called a feed-in tariff on clean energy. This guaranteed that the government would buy all electricity generated from renewable energy plants at a fixed rate.
I spoke to someone who had a front-row seat to these reforms.
“My name is Marat Yelibayev. I am principal banker of EBRD, focusing primarily on renewable energy projects in Kazakhstan.”
He says the reforms introduced some measure of stability in the market.
“…It's really critical to have a stable regulatory framework to attract investments…I think this is probably number one in terms of what has been changed.”
According to Marat and his team at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, this new legislation helped lower investment risks in the Kazakh solar market, helping kick off Kazakhstan’s solar revolution.
When Burnoye was built, it showed that a new future was possible. That solar power—even in a country with a past and present dominated by fossil fuels—is viable.
Saule Duisenova represents a solar power company with offices in Kazakhstan. She says that Burnoye was a key factor in her firm’s decision to enter the Kazakh market.
“The main decision to invest was made after successful implementation of Burnoye solar project. It definitely gave us certain confidence that this sector can work in Kazakhstan.”
And Duisenova isn’t the only one who thinks so. Ever since the construction of Burnoye, new solar parks are appearing across the country. They’re expanding this growing market even further and creating tantalizing opportunities for businesses, communities, governments, and individuals alike.
Even individuals who had previously worked in the fossil fuels industry. While at Burnoye I met solar technician Ruslan Mametov, who came to the plant after spending years working at an oil refinery.
He marvels at how different Burnoye is, compared to his last employer.
“The difference is first of all in how clean the environment is, second, how new this equipment is. I had never seen this kind of technology in my entire career.”
The Kazakh government is eager to see its citizens enter the clean energy workforce, particularly in underpopulated parts of the country. The head of renewables at the Ministry of Energy is Ainur Sospanova. She says this is a growth industry.
“The large renewable energy projects are often being implemented in the most remote regions of our country where there’s high potential for renewable energy but there isn't any work. And a town with a solar park being developed nearby can offer jobs to the locals.”
Big changes are afoot in Kazakhstan. The Burnoye solar facility has sparked a movement that’s gaining momentum. This is just the beginning of a long journey, but Kazakhs have their eye on the bigger picture.
Renewable energy chief Sospanova put it best. She said it’s our responsibility to future generations to leave the planet no worse off than we found it. It’s the legacy we leave—and the greatest inheritance of all.
I’m Scott Vincent Andrews for the Climate Investment Funds in Kazakhstan.
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Feature Story: Sparking a Clean Energy Revolution