The spokesperson for the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nicolas Fierens Gevaert, announced Monday that Belgium is interested in a number of projects in various fields in Azerbaijan, green energy above all, noting that the interest is present even in the private sector, which is an important player in the Belgian open economy and its foreign trade
Per Gevaert, one Belgian company is developing a solar energy project in Nakhchivan, supported by private Belgian investments. He also noted that Belgium is also interested in developing the economic sector of green hydrogen in cooperation with foreign partners.
With regards to the other areas of cooperation, Gevaert noted that several Belgian companies already have their offices in Azerbaijan, such as moving services provider Gosselin and Sarens, which is engaged in heavy lifting.
Last November, Walloon Export & Investment Agency from Wallonia and Flanders Investment and Trade from Belgium’s Flemish region organized a trade mission to Azerbaijan to promote bilateral foreign trade.
Belgian companies, according to Gevaert, will be also present in Baku in October 2023 at the International astronautical congress.
Meanwhile, intensive negotiations have taken place between EU and the Azerbaijan in recent years to explore the possibilities for cooperation in the field of green energy.
To this end, Azerbaijan signed the Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Partnership in the Field of Energy with the EU in July 2022 which, among other things, enables the country to support the development of green energy and increase electricity export between the region and Europe.
Supporting green energy initiatives in Azerbaijan will not only strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation between the two parties but helps the REPowerEU plan the European Commission published in May, which envisages scaling up renewable energy.
Against the background of EU-Azerbaijan energy cooperation, producing more electricity from renewable energy sources, on the other side, helps Azerbaijan to support a sustainable energy future by creating green energy zones and engaging in gradual decarbonization.
Baku, which has started sustainable development in the energy sector in recent years, is therefore interested in supporting green energy projects in order to diversify its energy production.
The Azeri president Ilham Aliyev signed in December in Romania the Agreement on strategic partnership on green energy, announcing during the meeting his country’s plans to become an important supplier of electric energy to Europe – mainly green energy.
Aliyev pointed out that Azerbaijan’s renewable energy potential is more than 27 GW of wind and solar power onshore and 157 GW of wind power in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
In this regard, Baku signed two important renewable energy projects – a 230 MW solar power plant to be built by UAE’s Masdar and a 240 MW Khizi-Absheron wind power plant to be built by Saudi’s ACWA Power – that will play an important role in increasing the share of renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan’s energy system up to 30% by 2030.
These projects will support Azerbaijan’s sustainable energy future and green energy export potential, which is envisaged to grow to 3 gigawatts of wind and one gigawatt of solar power by 2027 – 80% of which will be exported- with plans to create an additional capacity of at least 6 gigawatts by 2037.
