DUSHANBE, February 2, 2015, Asia-Plus — Tajik researchers plan to establish a demonstration and educational center in the near future for carrying out experiments in the field of alternative energy, known Tajik scientist Mamadsho Ilolov, who is Director of the Center for Innovative Development of Science and New Technologies at the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“The demonstration and educational center that will have an integrated power plant will be established in Romit Gorge, some 30 kilometers to the east of Dushanbe,” Academician Ilolov said.
According to him, solar batteries, wind power generators and biogas power generating units will be installed at the Center. “The center will also have a weather station to forecast weather and generation of power for several months ahead,” the scientist said.
“We have reached an agreement with our Chinese partners and we are currently working in this direction with our European colleagues,” said Ilolov. “Our Center is the participant of the International Cooperation Network for Central Asian Countries (IncoNet) Consortium, which is the project of the European Union for cooperation with Central Asia’s nations. Our European colleagues have good experience in using various sources of renewable energy.”
Academician Ilolov considers that Tajikistan has to start comprehensive study of generation and use of solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy sources as soon as possible.
“The world has limited hydrocarbon reserves. Tajikistan has no enough hydrocarbon reserves but is rich in water and energy resources. But we can have problems with hydropower in the future because of glacier melting resulting from climate change. Therefore, like other countries of the world we must think about alternative energy sources,” the academician said, noting that Tajikistan has various opportunities for generation of alternative energy.
“Tajikistan enjoys nearly 300 sunny days a year and we have good geographical conditions for generation of solar energy,” Ilolov noted.
Tajikistan also has good conditions for generation of wind and geothermal energy. “We have large geothermal water reserves and we must use them,” he said.
“Besides, we could generate energy through conversion of biological materials,” Ilolov noted.
The academician pointed to the necessity of exploring potential of renewable energy resources in the country. “We have not carried out comprehensive study to assess potential of renewable energy resources so far,” the academician stressed, adding that they are starting such a study in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and the Ministry Industry and New Technologies.
Ilolov notes that they hope for assistance of Chinese partners in terms of financing of the Center’s project.
According to him, they recently visited Urumqi where they got acquainted with work of their Chinese colleagues on generation of alternative energy. They reportedly visited Turfan, where an 8.8-square-kilometer area had been built into a national model for green city development. Designed to be a model environmentally-friendly city in western China, the new low-carbon city depends not on fossil fuels but solar and wind energy for lighting and hot water supply. It also uses geothermal resources for winter heating and summer cooling.
“Besides, we also hope for financial assistance of our European partners,” Academician Ilolov said.
