Saudi Arabia And Three Nations Sign Joint Executive Program To Boost Renewable Energy Cooperation At COP29

During the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, a significant agreement was signed. His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy, and energy ministers from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan committed to a joint executive program. This initiative aims to boost cooperation in renewable energy development and transmission.

The executive program focuses on forming a strategic partnership to evaluate regional power grid interconnection projects using renewable energy. This effort seeks to enhance energy infrastructure efficiency and integrate renewable projects into national grids. The program also explores joint investment opportunities for developing regional grid interconnection projects that support renewable electricity generation and storage initiatives.

ACWA Power is actively involved in these initiatives across the three countries. The signatories agreed on a mechanism for exchanging information and expertise. This includes knowledge-sharing among experts, organizing specialized conferences, seminars, and holding joint working sessions to foster close cooperation among the nations involved.

In addition to the executive program, two strategic agreements were signed by ACWA Power with various entities in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. The first agreement with Uzbekistan's Ministry of Energy aims to develop battery energy storage systems (BESS) with a capacity of up to 2 GWh. This project intends to improve grid stability.

The second agreement involves a memorandum of understanding with SOCAR, an Azerbaijani company, and Masdar. It focuses on developing offshore wind power projects with a capacity of up to 3.5 GW in the Caspian Sea. This marks Azerbaijan's first initiative of this nature.

The Saudi Electricity Company also signed memorandums of understanding with network operators in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. These agreements aim to develop regional interconnection projects and collaborate with AzerEnergy on electricity transmission and integrating renewable sources into the power grid.

Comprehensive Roadmap

A comprehensive roadmap for cooperation in energy fields was signed by Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Azerbaijani Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov. This roadmap outlines an action plan and timeline for priority projects, facilitating procedures to achieve shared objectives.

The roadmap covers several crucial areas such as renewable energy, carbon capture, utilization and storage, clean hydrogen, energy efficiency, sustainability, resilience of supply chains, and trade in refined petrochemical products. It also involves collaboration in power generation, regional interconnection, energy storage, and identifying investment opportunities in renewable projects.

This signing implements bilateral memorandums previously agreed upon between Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan in Riyadh. Additionally, it includes two energy cooperation agreements with Azerbaijan in Riyadh and Uzbekistan in Jeddah.

With inputs from SPA