Alternative Energy

One of the most powerful threats for our world can be already seen on the horizon. It is the natural resources constrained resulted in serious energy shortages. Due to the process of industrialisation the World has met irrevocable changes in the environment. The demand of energy resources increased tremendously in the last century. This lead to the depletion of carbon-emitting fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. Moreover, the indiscriminate exploitation of these natural resources is also responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, the ozone level depletion and some nature catastrophes. It is predicted that our resources, especially oil, will come to an end within 30-40 years. All these events established the need for alternative energy sources.

Being located in the Central Asian region, Kazakhstan possesses the stunning opportunities for the implementation of renewable energy sources, and yet it continuous using it's abandoned coal resources to generate energy. In fact, only 0.3% out of the total amount of electricity produced in Kazakhstan is renewable (Nazarbayev, 2011). Meanwhile, most coal-fired power plants were built during the Soviet period and became outdated. Moreover, the country regularly experiences serious energy shortages, so it is forced to buy electricity from neighbouring countries, such as Kyrgyzstan and Russia (Cochran, n.d.). Burning coal at conventional coal power plants, produces 80% of the total electricity balanced against the immense human and environmental costs. Kazakhstan is reported to have the largest carbon-dioxide emissions (6.11 kg CO₂ per $1 GNP) in the Central Asia region, and it holds the third place in the world (Danaev, 2008). It is also estimated that the economic damage from the environmental pollution due to using coal is, approximately, $3.4 billion per annum (Larimi Invest Group, 2011). However, this problem could be solved by the insertion of the alternative power plants into the national power grid systems. Among them are such energy sources as wind, solar and hydro energy. It could possible to meet the country's energy demand and to reduce the dangers and environmental degradation associated with coal use.

In this essay I would like to discuss some advantages and drawbacks of each type of renewable energy sources and suggest some ways to implement them in Kazakhstan.

Firstly, the most eligible source of renewable energy in Kazakhstan is wind power, the cheapest form of new electricity. The climatic and territorial conditions provide Kazakhstan with enormous wind energy resources to generate such kind of electricity, as half of Kazakhstan's territory has the average annual wind speed over 4 metres per second at an altitude of 10 metres(Danayev, 2008). Furthermore, some experts even consider the Republic's potential ability of using wind power per capita as number one in the world (Larimi Invest Group, 2011). Two most suitable locations for Kazakhstan wind power plants are the Djungar Gates and the Chilik corridor, both located in Almaty region. The first one was even rewarded as "the best wind climate in the world", due to its ability to work at a full capacity for 6 months (Cochran, n.d.). Each of these two sites has the potential capacity for wind energy generation at 1000 MW (Cherednichenko & Cherednichenko, 2007). In addition to that, they are also potentially attractive by their close location to the existing transmission lines. It means that the integration into the national grid system could be more effective. Besides these two sights experts identify 15 additional ones in other parts of the country. It is totally incomprehensible why Almaty region possessing such potential wind power capacity has been importing energy from China and Kyrgyzstan. It is the second largest importer of foreign electricity in Kazakhstan, with its annual purchase of 760 MWh (Danayev, 2008). Cochran argues that with the effective use of wind farms at the Djungar Gates Kazakhstan can not only satisfy its internal electricity needs but also export to Xinjiang, a China region, where electricity demand has been growing rapidly (n.d.). It was calculated that the most efficient wind power plants equipped with small wind turbines could be constructed at 80-90% of the country's territory, despite its adverse climate conditions (Larimi Invest Group, 2011). Such small turbines are especially important for sparsely populated and remote regions, where the erection of power lines is not profitable.

Among the advantages associated with the use of wind power plants are cleanliness, renewability, big generating capacity and independence from fuel prices. It can be generated in remote areas, both at the individual household level and at the national scale. Moreover, the area with the installed wind farms can be used for other purposes, for example - agricultural ones. On the other hand, along with the undeniable benefits of the usage of wind turbines, there are some disadvantages. The most significant one is that wind can be intermittent, and there is no force which can make it blow when electricity is needed. Hence, the concerns of some Europeans, that if this source of power comprises a certain amount of energy in comparison with all the others across the country can destabilise the national grid system, take place (Douglass, 2011). However, this is not a fatal case and it can be resolved by a thoughtful choice of a site to construct such wind farms.

Another big disadvantage of wind power industry is connected with the rather a considerable investments into such a power plant construction and, therefore, higher production taxes for the electricity produces there. However, the cost of the construction fell by 30% in the period between 1989 and 2001 while the wind energy costs constituted less then 5 cents per a kilowatt-hour (Douglass, 2011). It can be competitive with the costs of energy produced at a new coal-fired power plant.

Finally, today's Kazakhstan has big barriers to investment, construction and operation activities connected with the renewable energy sources especially at the legislative level. It is noted that there is no single law that determined any incentives, government support such as tax credits, long-term subsidies and the priority right for connection to public grid networks (Larimi Invest Group, 2011). Thereby, there is still a lot of work in order to promote a necessary insertion of renewable power plants into the national grid system and establishment of the legislative initiatives. Nevertheless, the Kazakh government showed a positive willingness to commissioning of the alternative energy sources.

The second possible solution to meet the electricity demand in Kazakhstan is solar power. The country possesses 2,200 - 3,000 hours of annual sunshine, and this can create 1,300-1,800 kWh/m² per year (Nazarbayev, 2011).