![]() ![]() Should the nuclear power plant get the green light, a site has already identified. “Energy consumption in the country is growing: we must diversify production and ensure stable generation of clean energy,” Zhantikin said. Nuclear will kill two birds with one stone, say officials. But the share of renewables in the overall energy balance is only 4.5 percent and expansion plans are far from impressive. About 15 percent is hydropower and most of the rest is produced with natural gas and oil.Īs the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in Central Asia, Kazakhstan has committed to reduce its carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement. Up to 80 percent of electricity currently generated in Kazakhstan comes from burning coal. Timur Zhantikin, general director of Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plants, a company created by the government to operate any putative plant, told Eurasianet that the capacity shortfall could reach 3 gigawatts by 2030.Īnother plank of the pro-nuclear argument is environmental. ![]() Īs demand grows, the problem can only worsen. For days on end in November, just as temperatures had plunged to -30 degrees Celsius, a malfunction at the power station left thousands of residents without electricity or heating. This state of affairs accounts for incidents like the one that last year afflicted the city of Ekibastuz, in the northern Pavlodar region. ![]() Power plants, largely relics of the Soviet era, are operating, by the estimates of industry insiders, at about one-third of their original capacity. Without nuclear power, Kazakhstan stood to “lose its entire economy,” he said, adding for safe measure that nuclear skeptics were “populists who do not understand economic realities.”įew would dispute the assertion that the country’s electricity infrastructure has seen better days. He adopted sharper language earlier in the year, at a government meeting in February. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |