BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 14. Azerbaijan is taking
significant strides in the development of green energy, with green
hydrogen emerging as a key component of the country’s future energy
mix, said Deputy Minister of Energy Elnur Soltanov, Trend reports.
Speaking at the EBRD Annual Meetings in London, during a panel
discussion titled “Azerbaijan: Emerging Gateway to Green Growth and
Connectivity”, Soltanov provided insight into the country’s
evolving energy strategy and its focus on renewable resources.
While acknowledging that Azerbaijan is not yet at the forefront
of hydrogen technology, Soltanov emphasized the country’s strong
potential in offshore wind energy, which could play a crucial role
in the development of green hydrogen.
He explained that Azerbaijan’s focus on green hydrogen stems
from its potential as a storage solution for excess energy,
particularly from renewable sources. “The way we started thinking
seriously about hydrogen and specifically green hydrogen was as a
storage system. Storage systems are very expensive, but hydrogen
has very nice properties. When you have too much energy that you
cannot use, there could be curtailment. Can you channel that energy
for the production of hydrogen, which can then turn into
electricity when you have a short supply, or could be exported as a
molecule? So this was the idea,” Soltanov noted.
In addition to green hydrogen, the deputy minister highlighted
Azerbaijan’s competitive advantage in blue hydrogen, citing the
country’s natural gas reserves and depleted oil fields that are
well-suited for carbon capture and storage. “We have natural gas,
we have depleted oil and gas fields for carbon capture and storage,
but at the same time, we pushed our consultants towards green
energy as much as we could,” he added.
However, Soltanov acknowledged that global developments have
influenced Azerbaijan’s expectations for green hydrogen. “Five
years ago, we had much more upbeat expectations regarding green
hydrogen. Today, we don’t have the same thing. But again, in every
consultancy that we are hiring, and I appreciate free advice
definitely, whenever we hire them, we have to include issues
related to green hydrogen,” he said.
“Given the scale that we have in the Caspian and the
infrastructure I was mentioning before, we believe that we could
create some kind of ecosystem, a symbiotic relationship between
them, and again pull this off,” he concluded.
