Uzbekistan may export surplus electricity to Europe via Azerbaijan from 2030

Uzbekistan will be able to export its surplus electricity to Europe from 2030 if the joint Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Azerbaijan project to lay a deep-water cable along the bottom of the Caspian Sea is successfully implemented, according to Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov, head of Uzbekistan's Ministry of Energy.

"By the end of this year, we will bring the total capacity of energy received from renewable sources to a level of more than 4 GW. By 2030, this figure will be more than 20 GW, of which two to five GW will go for export to Europe," he told Report on the sidelines of the first meeting of Central Asian energy ministers in Astana.

The exact export volume will depend on the capacity of the electricity transmission system and the needs of European buyers. The electricity from Uzbekistan will go through Kazakhstan via the Common Electric Power System of Central Asia, then through a deep-water cable along the bottom of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, from there to Georgia, and further via a cable along the bottom of the Black Sea to Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria.

Under Uzbekistan's development strategy, total generation capacity will be increased by 2.4 times to 44.9 GW by 2030. The share of renewable energy sources will be brought to 40%, with solar and wind generation projects totaling 18.8 GW (8.6 GW solar, 10.2 GW wind) to be implemented.

On May 1, during the Tashkent Investment Forum, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on integrating energy systems for supplying "green" electricity to Europe.