Kazakhstan could miss its revised 2030 renewables target

The country set a 15% renewables target in 2021, up from 10% initially.

Kazakhstan could fall short of meeting its 15% renewable energy target in 2030, GlobalData reported. 

In 2021, the country revised its renewables target to 15% from the initial 10%. However, GlobalData found that based on its current trend, Kazakhstan will only achieve 10.3% of electricity generation through renewables. 

“Kazakhstan lacks flexible generating capacity and relies on parallel operation with the Russian power system. The current geopolitical crisis creates a major risk for the country to cover imbalances and maintain frequency stability,” Attaurrahman Ojindaram Saibasan, Power Analyst at GlobalData, said.

“The shortage of flexible capacity is likely to become an increasing challenge as more intermittent renewable power is added to the capacity mix.”

Read more: ACWA Power, Kazakhstan to develop 1GW wind energy, battery storage

Citing its latest report, GlobalData found that Kazakhstan is highly dependent on thermal power, which accounted for 80.1% of its installed capacity, and 86.6% of its annual generation in 2022. 

Coal power alone accounted for 59.5% of the total cumulative installed capacity and 64.5% of the total annual generation. 

Coal-based thermal power is mainly driven by substantial coal reserves and its cheap availability,” GlobalData said.