Sep 21, 2020
After leaving a long career in fossil fuels, solar technician Ruslan Mametov is proud to work at Burnoye Solar, Kazakhstan’s first and largest solar power facility.
Ruslan Mametov, an electrician living in the southern Zhambyl region of Kazakhstan, counts himself lucky. In 2015, he landed a position as a technician at Kazakhstan’s firstever solar power plant, Burnoye Solar. Every day, he sees firsthand the country’s clean energy potential.
Mametov used to work at an oil refinery where gas leaks, fire, and other contamination risks made for hazardous working conditions. At Burnoye, Mametov marvels at “how clean the environment is, how new the equipment is, and how simple it is to maintain compared to oil industry electrical equipment. Many of my colleagues from oil refineries would like to work at an ecologically clean facility.”
Those jobs are coming as the clean energy revolution gains ground across Kazakhstan. Even in a country where fossil fuels have powered the economy for more than a century, renewables capacity has catapulted to over 1,000 megawatts (MW) in just five years. Pioneering projects like the 100 MW Burnoye solar plant have helped spark the movement.
“For Kazakhstan, Burnoye is a symbol of renewable energy,” says Nurlan Kapenov, former General Director of Samruk Kazyna-United Green LLP, developer and operator of Burnoye Solar. “It’s the biggest power plant in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Even our neighbor countries like Uzbekistan, government representatives, and businessmen come to Burnoye to see the history, technology, and scale.”
CIF has been a partner in Kazakhstan’s energy transition since 2010, supporting five projects (including Burnoye) with $45 million from CIF’s Clean Technology Fund (CTF), and working with the government, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to enhance the legal and regulatory framework for renewable energy.
In 2013, the Renewable Energy Law was passed, which includes feed-in tariffs for renewables, an essential foundation for attracting investments. Government agencies also focused on designing regulations and permitting requirements for renewable energy projects, standardized power purchase agreements, and streamlined grid access procedures to improve the enabling environment for private sector investments in renewable energy.
“We have shown the entire renewable energy market that the law does function, that we can integrate such power stations in our country, that we can get financing, that we can join
networks, and that we can produce power and make money,” says Kapenov.
In 2019, renewable energy—including wind, solar, and hydropower—reached 2 percent of Kazakhstan’s overall energy generation. The government aims for 50 percent by 2050. Under the Paris Agreement, Kazakhstan has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. That means moving away from coal, despite having one of the largest reserves in the world.
According to Ainur Sospanova, Head of Renewable Energy Sources in Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy, this is a move in the right direction. “As one wise man once said, the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stone. We have a huge responsibility to future generations to preserve these coal reserves so they could perhaps use them in a more sensible way.”
With his front-row view of Kazakhstan’s clean energy revolution, Ruslan agrees the country is on the right lowcarbon path: “I think I am making a contribution to the future development of my country by working in clean energy.”
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