BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 22. Azerbaijan
discussed cooperation with the World Bank on the AZURE project and
the Caspian-Black Sea-European Green Energy Corridor.
This was announced by Azerbaijan’s Minister of Energy Parviz
Shahbazov on his page on the social media platform X.
“We discussed our cooperation on the AZURE project and the
Caspian-Black Sea-Europe Green Energy Corridor with Stephanie Gil,
the World Bank’s Practice Manager for Energy in the Europe and
Central Asia Region. We assessed opportunities for joint efforts to
expand renewableenergy generation, strengthen the electricitygrid
and develop regional energy interconnections,” the post reads.
Meanwhile, the main goal of the AZURE project is to ensure the
sustainable and secure integration into the power grid of 2
gigawatts of renewable energy capacity currently under construction
in the country.
To this end, the 500/330 kV “Navahi” power hub is being built in
Azerbaijan, which will serve as the main hub substation.
High-voltage power lines with voltages of 500 and 330 kilovolts are
being laid from this hub in various directions across the country.
As part of the first phase of the project, funded by Azenerji's
internal resources and partially by the state budget, construction
of the 330-kilovolt section of the Navahi substation is nearing
completion, as well as the 500-kilovolt transmission line from
“Navahi” to Absheron and the 330-kilovolt transmission lines to the
“Bilasuvar” and “Banka” solar power plants. Upon completion of this
phase, the “Banka” and “Bilasuvar” solar power plants will be
connected to the unified power grid.
In the second phase of the project, financed by the World Bank,
plans call for the procurement and installation of equipment for
the 500-kilovolt section of the “Navahi” substation, including
transformers, as well as the construction of a 500-kilovolt
transmission line from “Navahi” to Mingachevir and 330-kilovolt
lines toward Alat, Absheron, and Gobu. This phase is expected to be
completed within three years.
