OCT. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan skipped a meeting in Bishkek to discuss details of a dam Kyrgyzstan intends to build across the Naryn River, Kyrgyz media reported. Kyrgyzstan’s plans to build a dam upstream of Uzbekistan have strained already tense relations between the two countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s finance ministry has approved an increase in electricity and gas prices, media reported. Reports quoted state-run Uzbekenergo saying electricity prices will rise by 6.95% from Oct. 1. Uzbekneftagaz said gas prices would rise by 8.5%. Utility prices have steadily increased in Uzbekistan, upsetting ordinary people.
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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)
SEPT. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan signed a deal to sell spare power to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The deal, signed in Islamabad, means building power cables from Central Asia. Hydropower stations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan generate spare electricity in the summer while both Pakistan and Afghanistan suffer shortages.
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(News report from Issue No. 152, published on Sept. 18 2013)
SEPT. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government plans to build 23 small hydropower stations, the ministry of industry and energy said. As Azerbaijan’s economy grows so does pressure on its power grid. Currently, hydropower generates around 12% of Azerbaijan’s power, a percentage it has said it wants to increase.
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(News report from Issue No. 152, published on Sept. 18 2013)
SEPT. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Overriding concerns from the EU, Armenia said it would extend the lifespan of its Metsamor nuclear power plant to 2026. The lifespan of the Soviet-era Metsamor, built 30km west of Yerevan in an area prone to earthquakes, had already been extended last year to 2020 from 2016. Metsamor provides 40% of Armenia’s power.
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(News report from Issue No. 152, published on Sept. 18 2013)
AUG. 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — After several months of deliberation, the Kazakh government signed into law a new energy saving code that should turn the country into a beacon of green, power-saving efficiency in the former Soviet Union.
For foreign investors and business, the code — dubbed Energy Efficiency 2020 — is something of a quandary. It will create opportunities for some businesses but also additional cost for industry.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev decreed that by 2015, the country needed to reduce its power consumption by 10%. Energy Efficiency 2020 aims to cut this by 25%.
Mr Nazarbayev’s motivation for this decision may have been EXPO-2017, a global opportunity to showcase his gleaming capital, Astana. Part of the EXPO-2017 message is clean, efficient energy.
In any case, the ramifications will mainly be felt by large industry. Kazakh media reported that under the new code it will process energy audits of 2,000 industrial sites.
Those businesses that don’t pass the audit will have to buy and implement a series of energy saving technologies and techniques.
Another part of Kazakhstan’s society that will be heavily targeted to improve energy efficiency is insulation in Soviet-era housing. This is often leaky, spilling out much of the heat generated by the centrally-controlled system.
It is unclear who will foot the bill for this ambitious target, but the government said it has already allocated $7.1b for various energy saving projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 150, published on Sept. 2 2013)
JULY 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Work has begun on building Georgia’s first wind farm, media quoted the Georgian minister for energy, Kakha Kaladze, as saying. Mr Kaladze said a small wind farm capable of producing 20MW of power would be operational in central Georgia by 2014. If the project is a success, more wind farms are planned.
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(News report from Issue No. 145, published on July 29 2013)
JUNE 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will spend roughly $3.2b a year until 2050 on developing alternative green energy sources and reducing its dependence on coal-fired power stations, energy minister Nurlan Kapparov told media. Coal-fired power stations produce roughly 80% of Kazakhstan’s power.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
JUNE 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — As a statement of intent it was emphatic. Kazakhstan’s environmental protection minister Nurlan Kapparov told a news briefing in Astana on June 5 that the state would invest $3.2b a year until 2050 on developing alternative sources of power to reduce its reliance on coal.
Mr Kapparov said that this was the equivalent of 1% of Kazakhstan’s annual total GDP.
This scale of commitment is genuinely large and will put Kazakhstan in the top league of countries committed to reducing their reliance on coal-fired power stations.
Currently, coal-fired power stations generate about 80% of Kazakhstan’s power needs.
The initiative to push for green alternative power sources is an indicator of a developed economy, just the sort of image that Kazakhstan wants to project. It is also part of Kazakhstan’s wider policies for both power production and for winning EXPO-2017. One of the themes of EXPO-2017 is green energy.
Kazakhstan has already made headway in developing alternative energy. This year it has announced initiatives to boost wind, hydro-electric, solar and nuclear power.
Mr Kapparov said that he wanted to see green energy make up half of Kazakhstan’s total production by 2050.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In comments made on a trip to Dushanbe, Kazakh foreign minister Yerlan Idrissov appeared to signal Kazakhstan’s intent to mediate in a long-running dispute between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over water rights, media reported. With Iran’s help, Tajikistan is building a dam that will effect water flow to Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)