Construction of the 240 MW Shafag Solar Power Plant will be started this year in Jabrayil district, Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, BP's vice president for the Caspian region which is the operator of the "Shahdaniz" project, told journalists, APA-Economics reports.
According to him, the area where the plant will be built has already been cleared of mines, and this process is currently under the certification stage.
Additionally, Bakhtiyar Aslanbeyli noted that the final investment decision over the project will be made this year. Besides this, the necessary equipments for the project will be chosen, and infrastructure and logistics issues will be resolved.
"The construction date of the plant will be determined depending on these issues," emphasized Bakhtiyar Aslanbeyli.
Note that within the framework of COP29, the groundbreaking ceremony for the 240 MW Shafag Solar Power Plant has been held in Jabrayil district. This plant is the first industrial-scale solar energy project and the largest direct foreign investment project implemented in the liberated territories.
The project is being carried out based on the Implementation Agreement signed between the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan and BP on June 3, 2021.
During the groundbreaking ceremony, on the project, the "Investment Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Shafag (Jabrayil) Solar Limited" and the "Land Lease Agreement between the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Shafag (Jabrayil) Solar Limited" were signed.
Then, symbolically, the first solar panel of the plant was signed. The Shafaq Solar Power Plant is expected to generate approximately 500 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, which will save 120-150 million cubic meters of natural gas and reduce carbon emissions by 260-330 thousand tons per year.
Within the framework of Virtual Power Transmission Agreement (VPTA), the energy produced at the plant will be transmitted to the existing electrical grid in Jabrayil, and an equal amount of energy will be supplied to the Sangachal terminal. As a result, renewable energy will be used to meet the terminal's energy needs, and it will support BP's efforts to reduce operational waste in the Caspian region.
Thus, the implementation of the project will make a significant contribution to decarbonization efforts of both the national economy and the consortium members, as well as SOCAR.
Approximately USD 200 million are being planned to invest in the project including the shareholders of the Shafag Solar Power Plant - BP, SOCAR, and the Azerbaijan Investment Company.
