President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev called on the government to take measures to increase the potential for electricity exports to 5,000 MW per year, as well as to start negotiations with potential buyer countries

„The Zangezur (energy – IF) corridor, the cable that will be laid along the bottom of the Black Sea, the traditional Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey line, the Iran-Azerbaijan power connection – all this infrastructure needs to be revised. If we can export an average of 1,000 MW of electricity per year, then we must have such a potential so that we can export 5,000 MW of electricity per year,” Aliyev said on Friday at a meeting on the results of the first half of this year.

According to him, instructions were given to Azerenerji JSC in this regard. In addition, the government and the relevant structures were instructed to „do this work thoroughly.”

The head of state recalled that at present Azerbaijan exports electricity in the traditional way – through existing high-voltage lines.

„However, in the future we can organize the export of electricity through the Zangezur corridor, and Europe has already presented a new project. There is also a project to build a cable along the bottom of the Black Sea from Georgia to Romania, and we are also interested in this project. That is, there are great prospects. At the same time, this will allow us to save natural gas and export the saved natural gas, especially given that the demand for our gas has now increased dramatically. The reason for this is understandable, and we are certainly working in this direction,” he added he.

Aliyev also noted the need to start negotiations with potential buyers of electricity.

„In my opinion, we should not wait for someone to come and knock on our door, this year we should determine the possible markets ourselves. Delegations should be sent there, negotiations should be held and conditions agreed, because this is the future „We all know perfectly well that investments in traditional energy sources will cease. Hydrogen, green hydrogen, electricity are the types of energy of the future,” the President stressed.

He added that the government is also considering proposals from several companies to build wind farms in the Caspian.

„У нас есть огромный источник энергии, такой как Каспийское море. Это уже отмечают и международные эксперты. Предварительные предложения по строительству ветряных электростанций на Каспии поступили от нескольких крупных компаний. Сейчас они изучаются и анализируются, как со стороны Минэнерго, так и Минэкономики”, – отметил глава государства.

Aliyev stressed that the potential of the Caspian Sea for the development of wind energy is known and attractive to foreign investors, and this gives reason to believe that there will be no problems with investments in this area: „I must also say that there is already competition between large companies in this area, and „The competition is very serious. I don’t want to name these companies now. However, the number of people who want to invest in this area is quite large. Therefore, we will make the right choice. That is, I want to say that I do not see a lack of investment here.”

As previously reported, Azerbaijan exported 1.6 thousand MW of electricity to neighboring countries in 2021. At the same time, President Aliyev has repeatedly stated that Azerbaijan should work towards organizing the export of electricity to Europe.