Kazakh region plans $1 billion wind farm projects

By Robin Paxton

ALMATY Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:55am EDT

ALMATY (Reuters) - A renewable energy consortium is planning a potential $1 billion investment to construct two wind farms in southern Kazakhstan that would enable the region to cut its dependence on imported electricity.

Investors in one of Kazakhstan's first wind power projects envisage the creation of a combined 600 megawatts of capacity at two locations in Zhambyl region, the regional government said on Thursday in a statement on its website, www.zhambyl.kz.

Central Asia Green Power, a joint venture between Kazakh private equity company Visor Group and the Turkish subsidiary of Italy's Relight Group, would undertake a feasibility study into the project, it said. Construction would take around two years.

Renewable energy projects are relatively rare in Kazakhstan, a Central Asian state sitting on 3 percent of the world's recoverable oil reserves, which also plans to develop a nuclear fuel cycle based on the world's second-largest uranium reserves.

But Kazakhstan's vast and exposed steppe has potential for generating wind power, particularly in southern regions of the country that depend largely on electricity imported from nearby Uzbekistan or the distant coal seams of northern Kazakhstan.

"In southern parts of the country, Kazakhstan is energy deficient. They have to import energy from other parts of Kazakhstan and from the other side of the border," Visor Group director Imraan Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

"This project will help the region to become energy self-sufficient."

A memorandum signed by Central Asia Green Power and state grid company KEGOC, as well as the local administration and power firm, plans two wind farms -- Zhanatas and Shokpar -- with capacity of 400 megawatts and 200 megawatts respectively.

"According to the investor's estimates, the investment sum for the construction of the Zhanatas and Shokpar wind farms will be about $1 billion," the Zhambyl regional government said.

Relight Group has undertaken renewable energy projects in Europe and the United States.