UAE’s Masdar signs power purchase agreement for wind farm in Kazakhstan

Project will provide power to 300,000 homes and eliminate two million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year

From left: Abdulla Zayed, Masdar’s director of business and project development, Sharif Al Olama, Undersecretary for Energy and Petroleum Affairs in the UAE’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, Sungat Yessimkhanov, Kazakhstan’s Vice Minister of Energy and Gulzhan Nalibayeva, general director of the Financial Settlement Centre for Renewable Energy Sources Support, after the signing of the power purchase agreement at Cop29 in Baku. Photo: MasdarShow less

Abu Dhabi's clean energy company Masdar has signed a power purchase agreement with Kazakhstan for its one-gigawatt wind farm in the Central Asian country, which is looking to boost the share of renewables in its energy mix.

The signing took place on the sidelines of the Cop29 climate change summit in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, the renewable energy company said on Saturday.

The agreement comes days after Masdar signed the investment agreement for the project with Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy. The project is set to be one of the largest wind farms in the Commonwealth of Independent States region.

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Abdulla Zayed, Masdar’s director of business and project development, and Gulzhan Nalibayeva, general director of Kazakhstan's Financial Settlement Centre for Renewable Energy Sources Support, signed the agreement.

“This agreement demonstrates Masdar’s long-term commitment to supporting Kazakhstan in achieving its ambitious clean energy goals. We are heavily invested in Central Asia with partnerships in a number of countries,” said Mohamed Al Ramahi, chief executive of Masdar.

Central Asia is a key market for Masdar, which aims to grow its total renewable energy capacity to at least 100 gigawatts by 2030.

Last year, the company signed a joint development agreement with Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade to develop more than two gigawatts of solar and wind projects in the country.

Masdar, which nearly doubled its clean energy capacity to 20 gigawatts in two years, has been active in Uzbekistan since 2019, with the 100-megawatt Nur Navoi solar project – the nation’s first successfully financed independent solar project.

On Friday, the company agreed to work with Socar Green, a subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s state oil company, and Saudi-listed Acwa Power to explore the development of offshore wind projects in Azerbaijan with capacity of 3.5 gigawatts.

Since its establishment in 2006, Masdar – which is jointly owned by Adnoc, Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, better known as Taqa – has developed and partnered in projects in more than 40 countries.

The wind farm is Masdar’s inaugural project in Kazakhstan. It is in the south of the country and features a 600-megawatt-hour battery energy storage system.

Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan - in pictures

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  Participants at the Cop29 venue in Baku, Azerbaijan. Reuters

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  President Sheikh Mohamed attends the World Leaders Climate Action Summit at Cop29, in Azerbaijan's capital Baku. UAE Presidential Court

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  Sheikh Mohamed greets Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey. WAM

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  Ding Xuexiang, China's first Vice Premier, at Cop29. Bloomberg

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  Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a plenary session at Cop29. AP

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  Sudan's military leader Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, at Cop29. Bloomberg

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  World leaders pose for a group photo at the Cop29 United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Baku, Azerbaijan. AP

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  Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, stands next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reuters

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  Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, addresses Cop29. Bloomberg

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  Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev speaks during the Cop29 opening ceremony. Reuters

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  Rafael Grossi, director general of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), at Cop29. Bloomberg

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  Cop28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber and Cop29 President Mukhtar Babayev at the official handover. AFP

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  Dr Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, delivers a speech during the opening of Cop29 in Baku. AFP

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  Mr Babayev speaks during the opening plenary session. AP

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  An installation depicting a beached whale by the Belgian art collective Captain Boomer on an embankment in Baku. EPA

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  The Turkey Solidarity Centre pavilion. Bloomberg

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  Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, speaks during the opening ceremony. EPA

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Masdar is the lead developer for the 1GW project, along with W Solar, Qazaq Green Power (a company of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, Samruk-Kazyna), and the Kazakhstan Investment Development Fund.

Construction of the wind farm is expected to start by the first quarter of 2026. When completed, it will provide power to approximately 300,000 homes in the south of Kazakhstan and eliminate two million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, according to Masdar.

The wind farm will support Kazakhstan’s ambitions to increase renewables capacity to 15 per cent of its energy supply by 2030, 50 per cent by 2050 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Countries around the world are boosting investments in,renewable energy,to cut emissions and limit the rise in global temperatures.

International investment in renewable energy must triple to $1.5 trillion a year by 2030 to meet the global goal of tripling renewables. Despite record spending of $570 billion last year, current national plans are set to deliver only half of the required renewable power growth, the Abu Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency said in a report last month.

To meet the global goals, installed renewable capacity needs to reach 11.2 terawatts by 2030, from the current levels of 3.9TW.