'One of the best worldwide' - French Qair Group on Azerbaijan's renewables dev't potential

By Trend

French Qair Group is very interested in renewable energy projects in Azerbaijan, including on its liberated territories, Charles Lhermitte, Chief Operating Officer at Qair Group told Trend.

Lhermitte in particular noted the wind onshore and PV projects.

“Two years ago we already participated in the first tender for the project in the country. We are quite interested to develop other projects especially due to the fact that the country has a very strong potential for renewables development. It is one of the best sites worldwide,” he pointed out.

He added that as the prices for oil and gas increase all over the world, it would be a good solution for the country to produce more electricity from renewables and at the same time sell oil and gas at the very good price to the other countries.

“Especially near Baku," Lhermitte said. "Seeing as it is a very windy city, it would be a very good place to produce large volumes of electricity at a very cheap price here.”

He added that currently the company is planning to participate in the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry’s auctions for renewable energy projects.

“We tried to develop the first PV and wind project in the south and north parts of Baku and we want to participate in the next auction of the ministry. This topic was discussed during the meeting with the Energy Ministry in Baku. We discussed both, how we can participate in the next auction, and at the same time, we expressed our interest in the projects in the liberated territories,” Lhermitte added.

He pointed out that as of now the company is in the process of negotiations for any possible projects in the country.

“Our strategy is Europe, in our sense Azerbaijan is connected to Europe in many ways: the grid connection, the fact that Azerbaijan is a large provider of gas to Europe and that there is a strong connection between Azerbaijan, Caucasus and Western Europe,” he said.

Elsewhere, speaking about the situation with sanctions on Russia, he said it affects the renewables market, and for sure this crisis led to the hike in prices for oil and gas resources in a global sense and more countries turn to renewables amid all this.

“Perhaps like during the energy crisis in 1973, this strange situation is also an opportunity for the renewables. The target is to be able to provide cheap electricity for everybody and when the price of gas and oil increases drastically you have to find a solution. It is very interesting how this crisis can be an accelerator for renewable energy development,” Lhermitte said.

He pointed out that as of now, there is an overall agreement regarding the benefits of renewables seeing as renewables could be cheaper than oil and gas, especially in the current conditions.

Lhermitte also pointed out that the energy crisis in Europe led to an increase in demand for renewable projects.

“For example one month ago we won 2 large projects at an auction in Scotland – with a total of 2 GW of offshore projects. Currently, there are a lot of tenders in Spain, Greece and Italy. We are present in all these markets and we can see there is an increase in demand for renewables capacities in all the European countries. It is a good opportunity for us to grow,” he said.

He added that demand for renewables increased in all parts of the world and the company already has projects in 18 countries.

Lhermitte also put a lot of emphasis on the company’s work in Brazil and the emerging market.

“It is Vietnam, Seychelles, Burkina Faso, Chad and so on where we already have assets, PV projects under construction and those already connected to the grid. We also did a lot of auto consumption projects, within which we produce electricity directly for the factory,” he concluded.

Qair is an Independent Power Producer (IPP), operating 785 MW of power generation assets exclusively from renewable sources. The group is in the construction and financing phase for 700 MW and is also developing 22 GW of assets for future deployment in the heart of the 18 territories in which it operates.