Prepared For: Consultancy Contract C26157REV/JPNS- 2013-02-01 Kazakhstan Renewable Energy Financing Facility (KazREFF) - Strategic Environmental Review Renewable Project Environmental Review Report - Wind June 2014 ERM Japan Ltd. The Landmark Tower Yokohama 19th Floor, 2-2-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku YOKOHAMA 220-8119 Japan www.erm.com The world's leading sustainability consultancy Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 2.0 RESOURCE AVAILABILITY AND POTENTIAL 2 2.1 RESOURCE AVAILABILITY 2 2.2 RESOURCE POTENTIAL 6 2.3 TRANSMISSION CAPACITY AND CONSTRAINTS 6 2.3.1 Existing Conditions 7 2.3.2 Anticipated Development 10 2.4 EXISTING PROJECTS 11 2.5 KNOWN PROPOSED PROJECTS 11 3.0 AVAILABLE AND PRACTICAL TECHNOLOGIES 14 3.1 COMPONENTS 14 3.1.1 Met Mast/Towers 15 3.1.2 Wind Turbines and Foundations 16 3.1.3 Support Buildings 17 3.1.4 Access Roads 18 3.2 GRID CONNECTIVITY 18 3.3 SITE DESIGN AND CONFIGURATION 20 3.3.1 Wind Farm Layouts 22 3.3.2 Construction 23 3.3.3 Commissioning, Operation, and Maintenance 24 3.3.4 Decommissioning 24 3.4 DEVELOPMENT COSTS 25 3.5 SUPPLY CHAIN IN KAZAKHSTAN 25 4.0 ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS 27 The world's leading sustainability consultancy 5.0 KAZREFF PROJECT APPRAISAL - ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS 31 5.1 EBRD REQUIREMENTS 31 5.1.1 Category A 32 5.1.2 Category B 33 5.2 KAZAKHSTAN REQUIREMENTS 33 5.3 KAZREFF APPRAISAL PROCESS 35 5.3.1 Initial Screening 36 5.3.2 Documentation Review and Approval/Feedback 36 6.0 APPENDICES 38 The world's leading sustainability consultancy 1.0 INTRODUCTION This Renewable Project Environmental Review (RPER) Report for Wind in Kazakhstan is one of four separate reports (other RPER reports were prepared for solar photovoltaic, small hydropower, and biogas) that have been prepared by Environmental Recourses Management (ERM) for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). These RPER reports are prepared to support the Kazakhstan Renewable Energy Financing Facility (KazREFF) Strategic Environmental Review (SER) and provide a resource to provide guidance to developers and their consultants, as well as technical evaluators of proposed renewable projects, by identifying areas of good potential and the nature and scale of technologies that can be applied in different parts of Kazakhstan. The source documents which have informed this RPER report are as follows: • ERM KazREFF Strategic Environmental Review, Final Inception Report, 29 May 2013; • ERM KazREFF Strategic Environmental Review, Draft Scoping Report, 21 May 2013; • Mercados Energy Markets International, Kazakhstan Renewable Energy Market Study, Draft Final Report, July 2013 (ÅF-Mercados EMI (2013)); • United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility, Kazakhstan- Wind Power Market Development Initiative, 2006 (UNDP 2006); • Black and Veatch, Renewable Energy in Ukraine Technical Report: Wind, 1 September 2011 (Black and Veatch 2011). These sources have been supplemented by additional research carried out by ERM and additional sources of data identified in the text. ERM 1 KazREFF RPER Report WIND – June 2014 2.0 RESOURCE AVAILABILITY AND POTENTIAL This section of the report identifies the characteristics of the wind rich resource areas of the country and the regions of Kazakhstan where wind farm development is technically feasible. It also assesses the nature and extent of constraints to wind farm development. 2.1 RESOURCE AVAILABILITY Kazakhstan is the world’s ninth largest country being some 2.7 million km2 in extent. Figure 1 shows the different oblasts of Kazakhstan. The western regions are dominated by extensive lowlands that include Aral and Caspian Seas, while the centre of the country is characterised by rolling hills with peaks up to 1,565 m. The south eastern and south western parts of the country are bordered by mountain ranges. Approximately 10 per cent of the country is occupied by mountains (Figure 2). The expanse of land and terrain within Kazakhstan indicates the potential wind resource that could be available for exploitation. Figure 1 Location Map ERM 2 KazREFF RPER Report WIND – June 2014 Figure 2 Topography Map Kazakhstan is not wind resource limited (i.e. it will not be the availability of suitable wind regimes that will limit the amount of wind turbines deployed). Neither is it limited by available land. On the contrary, large swaths of the country have a very significant wind resource. A wind atlas of Kazakhstan was developed as part of the United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility (UNDP/GEF) Kazakhstan wind power market development initiative and is presented in Figure 3. The atlas shows the long-term average wind speed at 80 m above ground level, at 9 km resolution for much of the country, and at 100 m resolution for nine areas of particular interest. Green areas show areas of lower wind speeds and red areas show areas of high wind speed. It should be noted that the wind atlas shows the average wind speed of the various areas of Kazakhstan. Periods during which wind speed generation is higher are not taken into account. Studies have shown that wind speeds in Kazakhstan are higher in the winter months of December to January1. A typical wind turbine can produce power at a minimum wind speed of 3.5 m/s, with the maximum wind speed for producing power being 25 m/s2. The optimum speed for power generation is typically 14 m/s. The UNDP/GEF atlas identifies that 50,000 km2 of territory across nine of the country’s 14 oblasts have a good wind resource (7—8 m/s). The north contains the highest wind power generation potential with Aqmola and North Kazakhstan oblasts averaging wind speeds of 8 m/s. Almaty Oblast (1) Almaz Akhmetov (2012) Potential of Wind Power in Kazakhstan, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing AG & Co KG (2) http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file17821.pdf ERM 3 KazREFF RPER Report WIND – June 2014 (southern Kazakhstan) also contain areas of very good (8—9 m/s) wind speeds and contains exceptional wind speeds (>9 m/s) in mountainous areas. The atlas also identifies significant wind resources in west Kazakhstan with the areas with greatest potential located in Mangistau Oblast. The Eastern Oblast of Kazakhstan has the least potential for wind farm development with average wind speeds of 5 m/s. However, development is still possible in this oblast as a typical wind turbine can still operate in these conditions. Table below highlights the wind power generating capacity of the three regions of Kazakhstan with the most potential for wind farm development. This potential in relation to transmission capacity and constraints is discussed in Section 2.3. Table 1 Regional Wind Farm Potential Transmission Region Wind Farm Potential (MW)3 West 2,200 North 11,878 South 3,162 Total 17,240 Source Åf-Mercados EMI (2013) 3 Unit of power equal to one million watts. (MBt in Russian) ERM 4 KazREFF RPER Report WIND – June 2014 Figure 3 Wind Atlas for Kazakhstan Map ERM 5 KasREFF SER RPER WIND – June 2014 2.2 RESOURCE POTENTIAL Due to Kazakhstan’s wind energy potential and the increased demand for electricity in the country, a programme for wind farm development was created in by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) with the support of United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The Kazakhstan – Wind Power Market Development Initiative” project began in December 2004 and finished in June 2011. The Project has been financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) with the Implementing Agency being the UNDP and the MEMR — now the Ministry of Industry and New Technology (MINT) — of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan (RoK) as the Executing Agency4. This programme as well as other initiatives, was used by the RoK government as a basis for a series of actions and targets for wind development from 2015 to 2030 which encourages the construction of wind farms generating a capacity of 250-300 MW by 2015 and a capacity of up to 2,000 MW by 2030. If capacity is constructed according to these timescales the electricity generated would amount to 1TWh5 by 2015 and up to 5 TWh by 2030. Kazakhstan has very large coal, oil, gas and uranium resources that are all being actively exploited. The country is the third largest producer of crude oil in Central Asia, behind Russia and China and has the third largest reserves outside of the OPEC member countries. One result of the abundance of energy resources has been the lack of a driver for developing wind energy on the basis of a scarcity of indigenous energy resources. Nevertheless, other drivers needed to be (and were) identified such as the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to strengthen local power supply and to act as an economic stimulus6. 2.3 TRANSMISSION CAPACITY AND CONSTRAINTS To realise the wind energy potential of Kazakhstan wind farm locations will need to be in proximity to existing transmission lines and the existing electricity grid will need to have adequate capacity to receive the power generated. Sites that are situated a great distance from load centres or major transmission lines face greater development costs and are generally less favourable than sites with better access to these facilities. Larger projects are able to locate farther away from transmission while smaller projects are 4 Lessons learnt from the UNDP-GEF project “Kazakhstan — Wind Power Market Development Initiative, UNDP Kazakhstan, 2011. 5 Unit of energy equal to 1000 watt hours. 6 Lessons learnt from the UNDP-GEF project “Kazakhstan — Wind Power Market Development Initiative, UNDP Kazakhstan, 2011. ERM 6 KasREFF SER RPER WIND – June 2014 located closer to transmission, due to economies of scale of larger projects to absorb higher transmission costs7.