Kazakhstan will receive wind turbines comparable in power to a nuclear power plant reactor: the French have approved

The French energy giant TotalEnergies has made a final investment decision and provided financing for the project of a wind power plant and a ground-based electricity storage system in Kazakhstan's Mirny.

According to the company, the project in Mirny will consist of a wind farm with a capacity of 1 GW of 150 turbines and a battery storage system of 600 MW. TotalEnergies owns 60% of the shares of the project. The remaining 40% are equally owned by Kazakhstan's Samruk Energy and KazMunayGas.

"Located in the south-east of the country, the project in Mirny should produce 100 TWh of renewable electricity for 25 years, which is enough to provide about a million people in Kazakhstan. The generated electricity will be sold to the Government of Kazakhstan within the framework of a 25-year electricity purchase and sale agreement. Investments in the project amount to $ 1.2 billion, of which about 75% is financed from external sources," the French company said.

TotalEnergies and its partners will receive loans from the international credit consortium, which includes EBRD, Proparco, DBK, DEG, Société Générale, QNB Group, China Construction Bank and Standard Chartered.

"We are pleased to launch one of the largest renewable energy initiatives in Kazakhstan today, thereby contributing to the country's goal of increasing the share of renewable energy sources in electricity production to 15% by 2030," said Olivier Juni, Senior Vice President for Renewable Energy at TotalEnergies.

As EADaily reported, last year Kazakhstan decided to build two nuclear power plants, which will be carried out by consortia led by Russian and Chinese companies. Each NPP will consist of two power units with a capacity of 1.2 GW each.