China solar power to battery in Kazakhstan

Nan Yi, chairman of the Chinese energy company, revealed that since 2015, the company has been investing in new energy projects in Kazakhstan, including photovoltaic and wind energy stations.

The most significant Chinese investments, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, are being made in the construction of solar and wind power plants in Kazakhstan. Chinese companies such as Universal Energy, Risen Energy and State Power Investment Corp, have become major investors in solar and wind power plants in the country.

China, which now produces 70 percent of the world's solar panels, is well represented in Kazakhstan's new renewable projects, but it is not the only player. Kazakhstan's largest solar project – a 100 MW field in Saran, Karaganda Province – was opened last year by a German company, also with EBRD backing.

True, Kazakhstan has over 85 percent of Central Asia's total solar potential, according to a UN estimate. Yet Nazarbayev's ambition has been slow to meet reality: Four years later, Kazakhstan had only a modest 157 MW of installed solar capacity, about enough to power a small city. State capitalism in China then offered Kazakhstan a nudge.

The Kapshagay photovoltaic power station, one of the largest single solar power projects in the Central Asian country, is a part of the China-Kazakhstan green energy cooperation initiative, jointly invested in and constructed by the Chinese company Universal Energy and Kazakh counterparts.

By 2017, as China's domestic solar capacity was outstripping demand, Beijing reined in its liberal aid for producers and instructed them to seek business abroad. The PRC offered Kazakhstan a taste of its technologies, gifting a 1 MW solar plant to the Alatau Innovation Park near Almaty.