"Diversification of the economy for our country is the number one priority. And from a practical point of view, today we see a growing interest in renewable sources," said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev as he responded to questions from business representatives from various countries during an event titled "Azerbaijan Executive Breakfast," held as part of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"We already inaugurated two big renewable power stations. And in the coming six years, we will dramatically increase our capacity to generate energy from solar and wind. In other words, by 2032, we expect to have eight gigawatts of solar and wind energy, because there is a lot of sun and a lot of wind. And we see a big potential. We have already contracted several projects, and now we are thinking about storage capacity. The first storage capacity is already being installed. We are expecting investments in transmission lines, because our target is to export green energy. And also, as it was already said, with respect to data centers, we think Azerbaijan can be one of the main destinations for investors. First, energy is cheap. Second, we have extra capacity. Even today, we have two gigawatts of electric energy which we do not consume and which we do not export due to the limited, so far, transmission capability. In six years, it will be eight gigawatts, and no country in our region has this extra capacity. Most of the countries depend on imports. Some countries are breaking even, but only Azerbaijan is the place where data centers can have maximum efficiency," the head of state noted.
