Turkmenistan Ponders Alternative Energy

Although Turkmenistan has vast reserves of natural gas, some of its scientists are giving thought to alternative energy sources. Nine-tenths of the country consists of desert, so solar and also wind power could realistically be harnessed. However, the scientists say investment is needed now for technologies that will take many years to come into use.



Alternative energy experts from 30 countries attended a conference on the subject in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat on February 25.



President Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov told participants, “We regard alternative energy… as a priority for further modernising the national energy complex.



Specialists at the Gun (“Sun”) research centre in Ashgabat say that based on average rates of sunshine, a single power station running off solar panels spread over several dozen square kilometres would produce all the electricity the country needs.



Getting there will be more difficult, as Turkmenistan is some way behind in scientific and industrial development.



A scientist at the Solar Institute in Ashgabat said the brain drain of recent years means there is no one left who is qualified to do the research. The institute was revived only a year ago.



In the Soviet period, it received funding from Moscow and ran various pilot projects including desalination plants using wind energy from the Caspian Sea, houses in Ashgabat with solar panels to heat them during the winter time, and a whole village on the fringes of the capital where all the buildings and public utilities ran on solar power.



“We have now started designing solar energy complexes and biofuel plants,” said the scientist. “It doesn’t make sense to run power lines and gas pipelines to remote desert and mountainous regions. It would be more appropriate to build self-standing solar power stations. However, these are plans for the future.”



A former scientist who now works as a trader in Ashgabat said that a lot of time had been lost in the post-Soviet period, and that researching and producing alternative energy systems would take at least 20 years.



“During our scientific decline, global science has moved on. If the authorities are serious about achieving anything, their main goal should be to train staff and let them use their initiative.”



A young academic at the Solar Institute was more optimistic, saying, “There’s lots of work to do, but I cannot agree that the situation is totally hopeless. We’ve got potential, and the scientists who are keen to work are mostly aged between 35 and 40.”



The researcher believes Turkmenistan’s capacity could be given a boost with an injection of foreign technology and some projects carried out jointly by local and foreign scientists. For example, foreign experts attending the alternative energy conference suggested pilot projects to create a solar-powered compressor plant in a desert area, and to process sand from the Karakum Desert into the silicon photoelements used to trap solar energy.



“President Berdymuhammedov is a scientist himself, so he ought to understand that science needs investment today that will pay for itself only after 15 or 20 years. I believe that this payback will come.”



(NBCA is an IWPR-funded project to create a multilingual news analysis and comment service for Central Asia, drawing on the expertise of a broad range of political observers across the region. The project ran from August 2006 to September 2007, covering all five regional states. With new funding, the service has resumed, covering Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.)