Masdar and Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna announced a landmark collaboration to develop up to 500MW of baseload renewable energy backed by battery energy storage systems (BESS), alongside 2GW of additional storage deployments across the country.
The agreement—formalized during an official visit by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and ratified in the presence of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev—reflects Kazakhstan’s increasing appetite for dispatchable clean energy solutions. The focus on “baseload” renewables underscores the strategic integration of wind and solar with large-scale storage, aimed at replacing thermal power generation in a country still heavily reliant on coal and gas.
While technical specifications were not disclosed, supplying baseload power from intermittent resources like wind or solar typically necessitates advanced battery storage to stabilize output. The project’s 500MW capacity could translate into several gigawatt-hours of storage, depending on its discharge duration—underscoring the scale and complexity of what’s envisioned.
This latest partnership builds on Masdar’s existing activity in Kazakhstan. During the same ceremony, the Emirati developer also finalized a previously announced 1GW wind project featuring a 600MWh battery system. The new 2GW BESS initiative—though still in exploratory stages—would dwarf that figure, potentially positioning Kazakhstan as a regional leader in grid-scale energy storage.
Kazakhstan’s goal of sourcing 15% of electricity from renewables by 2030 and 50% by 2050 demands aggressive infrastructure development. The country has increasingly relied on partnerships with international players to realize these targets. In 2023, Samruk-Kazyna signed a similar agreement with Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power to co-develop a gigawatt-scale wind and storage facility. TotalEnergies subsidiary Total Eren is also advancing a 1GW wind project in Mirny with 600MWh of BESS, backed by a government PPA and estimated to cost around US$1.4 billion.
The BESS wave is not limited to project development. In January 2024, China’s Envision Energy announced the construction of wind turbine and BESS manufacturing facilities in Kazakhstan with annual capacities of 2GW and 1GWh, respectively—critical for reducing dependence on imported technology.
Masdar’s interest in Kazakhstan is part of a broader regional push. The company has recently signed similar BESS-linked renewable agreements in Uzbekistan and is also developing what may become the world’s largest solar-plus-storage project in Abu Dhabi: 5.2GW of solar paired with 19GWh of battery capacity.
In Kazakhstan’s context, energy storage is not just about flexibility—it’s a necessary condition for market stability. The country’s aging thermal fleet and extreme seasonal demand swings have made grid reliability an issue. BESS provides the buffering capacity to mitigate these fluctuations, especially as renewables displace more dispatchable baseload sources.
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