First Solar Power Plant in Kyrgyzstan Will Save 120,000 Tons of Carbon Emissions Every Year

– credit, President.kg

On Christmas Eve, the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan inaugurated its first solar power plant, one that will power a small city and cut 120,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.

The 100-megawatt installation will generate 210 million kWh of clean electricity annually, and represents one of the largest foreign investments into the country of any kind since independence.

It’s seen as the start of a big push to de-carbonize, with outside investors having inked 12 other agreements for solar and wind resources that will bring 5 gigawatts of clean energy online in the coming decades.

Kyrgyzstan’s energy mix is already one of the most renewable in the world, with some 72%-84% of demand met by hydropower. However, input from fossil fuels can climb just as high depending on demand level and season, since many rivers lose flow rate during winter.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, President Sadyr Japarov described the project as signaling a new phase in the country’s energy transition and its commitment to sustainable development.

“The opening of the solar power plant marks the beginning of an important stage in strengthening our country’s energy independence and developing renewable energy sources,” Japarov said.

“We now recognize that without the active development of renewables, it is impossible to fully ensure stable electricity supplies for both the population and economic sectors.”The new solar plant was built in the most populous region of the country, approximately 60 miles east of the capital, Bishkek. The collapse of the Soviet Union left the local economy of Kemin district largely rudderless, but the recent urban growth in the district’s largest city led to increasing energy demand that this solar farm aims to satisfy. First Solar Power Plant in Kyrgyzstan Will Save 120,000 Tons of Carbon Emissions Every Year

Read More........→January 27, 2026

New Airship-style Wind Turbine Can Find Gusts at Higher Altitudes for Constant, Cheaper Power

The S1500 from Sawes – credit, handout

A new form of wind energy is under development that promises more consistent power and lower deployment costs by adapting the design of a dirigible, or zeppelin.

Suspended 1,000 feet up where the wind is always blowing, it presents as an ideal energy source for rural communities, disaster areas, or places where wind turbines aren’t feasible to build.

The design has grown through multilateral innovation by dozens of engineers and scientists, but an MIT startup called Altaeros, and Beijing-based start-up Sawes Energy Technology have taken it to market. Both have already produced prototypes that boast some serious performance.

In 2014, Altaeros’ Buoyant Air Turbine (or BAT) was ready for commercial deployment in rural Alaska, where diesel generators are still heavily relied on for power. Its 35-foot-long inflatable shell, made of the same materials as modern blimps, provided 30 kilowatts of wind energy.

As a power provider, though, Altaeros could never get off the ground, and now has adopted much of its technology to the provision of wireless telecommunication services for civil and commercial contracting.

Heir to Altaeros’ throne, Sawes has managed to greatly exceed the former’s power generation, and now hopes to achieve nothing less than contributing a Chinese solution to the world’s energy transition.

Altaeros’ BAT – credit, Altaeros, via MIT

During a mid-September test, Sawes’ airship-like S1500, as long and wide as a basketball court and as tall as a 13-storey building, generated 1 megawatt of power which it delivered through its tether cable down to a generator below.

Conducted in the windy, western desert province of Xinjiang, the S1500 surpassed the capabilities of its predecessor turbine by 10-times, which achieved 100 kilowatts in October of last year.

Dun Tianrui, the company’s CEO and chief designer, called the megawatt-mark “a critical step towards putting the product into real-world use” which would happen next year when the company expects to begin mass production.

At the same time, the Sawes R&D team is looking into advances in materials sciences and optimization of manufacturing that will ensure the cost of supplying that megawatt to rural grids will be around $0.01 per kilowatt-hour—literally 100-times cheaper than what was theorized as the cost for Altaeros’ model from 10 years ago.

One of the major positives of the BAT is that by floating 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the ground, they render irrelevant the main gripe and failing of wind energy—that some days the wind doesn’t blow. A conventional turbine reaches only between 100 and 300 feet up, putting birds at risk as well as not collecting all the air that’s blowing over the landscape.

Sawes’ unit is about 40% cheaper to build and deploy than a normal turbine, presenting the opportunity for a 30% lower cost for buying the wind energy.According to a piece in the Beijing Daily, reported on by South China Morning Post, challenges remain before commercial deployment can begin, including what to do during storms, and whether or not it will compete in communities with existing coal-power supply. New Airship-style Wind Turbine Can Find Gusts at Higher Altitudes for Constant, Cheaper Power

Read More........→October 28, 2025