21-29 September 2020
Kazakh-German University (DKU) with the assistance of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and with the direct facilitation of Solar Power Association of Qazaqstan (SPAQ) conducted an educational trip “Renewable Energy Trip 2020” to study the best practices of renewable energy sources and is ready to share its results..
The expedition included not only visits to renewable energy (RE) sites located in Kazakhstan but also very active and engaged discussions between speakers and participants at the opening and closing round tables held on September 21 and 29, 2020.
The round table, held online in Almaty on September 21, introduced the participants and featured presentations by representatives of organizations such as:
Jörg Pudelka, Country director, GIZ Office Kazakhstan
Ainur Sospanova, Head of the Department of renewable energy sources of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Xeniya Rogan, Senior investment officer, Asian Development Bank
Gulzhamal Issayeva, Manager of EU-UNDP project “Support for Kazakhstan`s transition to green economy (2015-2018)”
Oleg Ryaskov, Expert on energy of Regional Program USAID “Power the Future”
Valeriy Dvornikov, Association of Universities of Kazakhstan
The main topic of the round table "Economic mechanisms to regulate and support renewable energy and climate change mitigation in Kazakhstan. The role of the state and international organizations" seriously interested the participants and engaged them in a heated discussion of current economic issues of regulation and control of the renewable energy sector by the state.
The expedition to RE facilities in Kazakhstan also began on September 21 under the leadership of Alexey Kobzev, RE Project manager of Kazakh-German University, and included two territorial parts of the trip: the first was a route from Almaty, through Kapchagay, Taraz and to Kyzylorda; and the second - continued after the flight to Nur-Sultan through Akmola and Karaganda regions.
During the first part of the trip, we visited such stations as the Kapchagay solar power plant (based in Kapachagay, Almaty region), Korday wind power plant (located near Korday village in Korday district, Zhambyl region), Merke hydro-electric power plant (located in Merke district, Zhambyl region), Burnoye Solar-1 solar power plant (located in Zhualy district, Zhambyl region), and Baikonur Solar power plant (located in Shiyeli district, Kyzylorda region).
After the first part of the trip, the expedition participants flew to Nur-Sultan, from where they continued their journey to facilities in Nura, the "HEVEL" solar power plant (Akmola region), Intumak hydro-electric power plant (Intumak village, near Karaganda, Bukhar-Zhyrau district), Saran solar power plant (located in Saran city, Karaganda region), Yereymentau "First wind power plant" (located 3 km from Yereymentau city, Akmola region), as well as Astana EXPO wind power plant (near Kostomar village, Arshaly district, Akmola region). In addition to such a large number of sites visited, the expedition participants had the opportunity to be a guest at Nazarbayev University, where the they visited the RE polygon and the experimental site of Nazarbayev University, as well as the zero-energy mosque "Flower of the Most High" in Nur-Sultan.
Here is the comment of the trip participant Ms. Aizada Ismailova, Nur-Sultan: "It was just incredible! A million impressions and a million emotions. We drove half the country. We were in the South and the North. At solar, wind, and hydro-electric power stations! Talked with engineers and managers. A separate delight is a great team that was put together! It was fun, easy, and interesting! I want to express my immense gratitude to DKU Natural Resources Institute and all the organizers for the unique opportunity!"
The online closing round table was held on September 29, 2020. The topic of this round table was "The role of business and think tanks/innovation centers in the development of the renewable energy sector." This time participants had a unique opportunity to discuss their topics of interest with representatives of organizations such as Solar Power Association of Qazaqstan (SPAQ), Green Finance Center (GFC) at the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), Saran solar power plant represented by CEO Yevgeniy Grebennikov, and representatives from Nazarbayev University and the Kazakh research Institute of energy named Sh.Chokin.
In addition to all the discussions at the round table on September 29, the results of the trip from each participant were presented in the form of best practice case studies of renewable energy, which will be published in a scientific collection of the Kazakh-German University.
But the expedition to renewable energy sites and roundtables are only one part of the project's activities. It is also planned to create a film about the expedition and the participants of the trip will prepare best practice cases with a description of the visited facilities.
It is important to note the significant contribution to the organization of this trip and round tables made by Ainur Sospanova, Head of the RE Department, Ministry of Energy of the RK, and Nurlan Kapenov, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Solar Power Association of Qazaqstan (SPAQ) as well as the employees of these organizations.
We express our sincere gratitude to the management, chief engineers, and other employees of RE plants and facilities, who allocated their time and showed the expedition participants everything in detail.
The main result of the educational trip “Renewable Energy Trip 2020” was the unlimited inspiration of the expedition participants in the renewable energy sphere and the facilities visited, their design, and the management process. This even led to a collective decision to continue to work together to create a film about the expedition and the results of each of the participants. We are very glad to such response of participants and desire to continue joint activity on the project!
We wish participants good luck in achieving their goals and, of course, we assure our support and assistance in further teamwork on this project!
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