ALMATY (Wind Power) – The government of Kazakhstan is completing preparations to build a 78 MW wind farm the Tainty Ulan area in the east of the country. Kazakhstan has ambitious plans for wind power.

According to Darkhan Tokhtarov, head of the regional department of energy and utilities of the East Kazakhstan region, commissioning of the new wind farm is scheduled for 2016. The project will have around 35 turbines.

Among the participants of the project are LLP Spain Consulting (a joint venture of the Kazakh and Spanish business), a local joint-stock company, Yertys, and Hydro China International Engineering.

Last year, Kazakhstan announced plans to build up to six wind projects in northern Kazakhstan by 2018, according to a recent statement by Anton Fedyaev, head of the department of housing and communal services and energy of the Kazakh government.

However, the first wind farm in the country is a greenfield 50 MW wind power plant located in Yereymentau in central Kazakhstan. The EBRD provided a KZT14 bln (€59.2 mln) loan to Wind Power Yereymentau, a special purpose vehicle incorporated in Kazakhstan, while up to €18 mln of concessional financing was provided by the CTF.

Most of the electricity, over 70%, produced in Kazakhstan today is still generated by coal-fired power plants benefiting from easily accessible local coal reservoirs. However, the country is seen as one of the most promising countries in the CIS for both wind and photovoltaic energy investments. About 50% of Kazakhstan’s territory has an estimated average wind speed of about 4-5 m/s with the overall wind potential estimated at around 18,000 GWh per year. To date, renewable energy in Kazakhstan is mainly represented by a few hydropower plants mostly built in Soviet times.

Kazakhstan had voluntary obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% (compared to 1992) by 2020 and by 25% by 2050. Besides, according to the expert, Kazakhstan is planning to take the share of renewable energy sources power to 50%.