This is the “first large-scale investment in wind energy for Eni and the first onshore wind farm in Kazakhstan for GE,” the two groups said in a statement. “With 48 MW of wind power, the park will increase the country's wind capacity by 25 percent,” they added.
In addition, GE will supply 13 onshore wind turbines to Eni's planned Badamcha wind farm in the Aktobe region of northwestern Kazakhstan.
This project is part of Kazakhstan's goal of “getting 50% of its energy from renewable sources by 2050,” said Luca Cosentino, vice president of Eni's energy solutions department. “We expect it to be operational by the end of 2019”, she added.
Eni has been present in Kazakhstan since 1992, where it operates the giant oil field of Kachagan with the French Total, the American ExxonMobil, the Dutch-British Shell, the Kazakh company KazMunaigas, the Japanese Inpex and the Chinese CNPC.
The Kachagan deposit is the largest in the Caspian Sea and contains 13 billion barrels of oil.