DUSHANBE, September 11, Asia-Plus — Opportunities of renewable energy resources in Tajikistan and the results of work done under the “Use of Renewable Energy Resources in Tajikistan” Project sponsored by the European Union were presented in Dushanbe today.    

Chief Academic Secretary of the Tajik Academy of Sciences, Hakim Ahmadov, noted that that the project provides for support for a wide use of advanced and perspective technologies of production of heat and electrical power with use of the renewable energy resources, first of all solar power, for improvement of living conditions of the population.  The project also includes raising awareness of opportunities of the wide use of solar power among the population and support for distribution of solar water heaters through market, Tajik researcher said.  

According to him, introduction of solar water heaters will allow saving up to 60 percent of the electrical power.

Tajik researchers says that production of solar water heaters could be organized at Tajik aluminum plant in Tursunzoda, Dushanbe’s Textilmash (production of textile machines) as well as at enterprises in the northern Chkalovsk city.  

But Tajikistan does not have the latest technologies of production of parts of the solar batteries, and therefore, it would be expedient to launch joint ventures in the country to produce such renewables.  

Renewable energy utilizes natural resources such as sunlight, wing, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. Renewable energy technologies range from solar, wind power and hydroelectricity to biomass and biofuels for transportation.  About 13 percent of primary energy comes from renewables, with most of this coming from traditional biomass like wood-burning.  Hydropower is the next largest source, providing 2-3%, and modern technologies like geothermal, wind, solar, and marine energy together produce less than 1% of total world energy demand.  The technical potential for their use is very large, exceeding all other readily available sources

Renewable energy technologies are sometimes criticized for being unreliable or unsightly, yet the market is growing for many forms of renewable energy. Wind power has a worldwide installed capacity of 74,223 MW and is widely used in several European countries and the USA.  The manufacturing output of the photovoltaics industry reached more than 2,000 MW per year in 2006, and PV power plants are particularly popular in Germany.  Solar, thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354 MW SEGS power plant in the Mojave Desert.  The world''s largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW.  Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country''s automotive fuel. ^[9] Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA.

While there are many large-scale renewable energy projects, renewable technologies are also suited to small off-grid applications, sometimes in rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development