Large-scale solar energy plant built in beach resort north of Almaty

The largest Central Asian solar power plant will be built in the Almaty region.

The plant will produce 50 megawatts of electricity. This is enough to provide power to five rural areas. Thus, the Kapchagai lake town is planned to be turned into the first large settlement that will receive energy exclusively from alternative sources. The first experiment was conducted in 2013. A solar power station with a capacity of two megawatts was constructed there. 60 panels were installed to generate energy, they rotate following the sun movements during daylight. The plant is successfully operating and provides electricity to a thousand houses.

“We have 500 hectares of land at a distance of 10 kilometers from this site. We are going to build an electric power station with a capacity of 50 megawatts on this plot. We have already received approval from the state expertise on design estimates,” says the station’s cirector Zhomart Momynbayev.

The warranty service life of the solar power plant is 25 years. People benefit from wind energy too. According to experts, 158 mini hydropower plants with a total capacity of 1800 megawatts can be built in the Almaty region.

“We installed four wind power stations last year. In the future, we are planning to install up to 20 additional wind farms. They will produce about 20 Megawatts of electricity in the future,” in the words of Kapchagay’s mayor Talgat Kainarbekov.

There is the first eco-office in Almaty. It uses alternative energy sources. The office is illuminated with electricity obtained from solar panels that are installed on the roof. The building has water recirculation for drainage and plants watering. The office uses diode lighting. A laptop consumes less power than that with a hundred-watt bulb. The project was prepared in five years. The arrangement of the green space costed 25% more expensive than that of a traditional office.

Businessman Maxim Baryshev commented: “On average, I can say that a similar but not eco-friendly office building’s utility consumption costs about 350,000 tenge per month. Our office building’s utility bill is maximum 70,000 tenge a month.

Sorce: Kazakh TV