Chinese company looks to invest in Kazakhstan wind power

The president of China’s SANY Group has told a Kazakh news agency his company plans to invest in Kazakhstan’s wind power industry.

Kazakhstan, a country more usually associated with oil, has a programme to boost the contribution of renewable resources towards the nation’s energy needs and will be showcasing its development of such resources at the EXPO-2017 the country is hosting this summer.

SANY chief Duan Dawei told the Kazinform news agency: “Recently, we have agreed with Kazakh partners on co-sponsoring a wind power project.” Duan did not provide any details about the investment or location of the planned wind power facility but did say he would be visiting Kazakhstan soon.

SANY has been working in Kazakhstan since 2009, helping in the construction of projects along the Asia-Europe Transportation Corridor, which is now part of China’s ambitious One Belt-One Road (OBOR) trade network project. Duan was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting in Beijing with a Kazakh delegation led by Kazakh Ambassador Shakhrat Nuryshev where the two sides were discussing Kazakhstan’s Nurly Zhol (Bright Path) economic development programme and its compatibility with OBOR.

According to Kazinform, Nuryshev said: “Today we can safely say that the new economic policy Nurly Zhol and the initiative One Belt, One Road harmoniously complement each other.”

Kazakhstan’s government not only intends to advertise the country’s advances in the use of renewable resources; authorities have said they will provide electricity to the EXPO-2017 site using only hydro, solar and wind power. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the opening of the event in June.

Chinese companies Da I and Hydro China International Engineering are already involved in constructing wind farms in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan has set a goal of renewable energy resources supplying some 3% of the country’s energy by 2020 and providing for some 50% of its energy needs through the use of renewable energy resources by 2050.

Kazakhstan’s development of renewable energy resources has been lauded by environmental groups but it has a functional purpose also, as most of Kazakhstan’s oil and gas is located in the sparsely inhabited western region of the country, while the bulk of the population lives in the eastern part of Kazakhstan, where the majority of the renewable energy projects are being implemented.