On March 15, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev took part in the ceremony of laying the foundation of the Garadagh solar power plant (SPP), the official website of the head of state reports.
The plant with a capacity of 230 MW will be built by “Masdar” from the United Arab Emirates. Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said at a press conference on Tuesday that the station would be built within a year and a half.
“The countdown of construction time begins from the moment of laying the foundation. The cost of the project is $225 million, which will be invested by Masdar. Electricity will be sold to consumers at tariffs (AZN 0.055 per kWh) set by the Tariff Council. The construction of this station will save 110 million cubic meters of gas annually and prevent emissions of 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” the minister said.
The head of the Ministry of Energy also noted that the implementation of this project will increase the share of installed RES capacity in the energy system of Azerbaijan from 16.5% to 21.2%.
UAE Minister of Energy Suheil al-Mazrui, in turn, said that the new station will provide electricity to 110,000 apartments. “20% of the station’s equipment will be provided by local contractors in Azerbaijan,” he said.
Caspian Barrel
