The agreement “will pave the way for European renewable energy companies to tap the huge wind power potential of Azerbaijan, to help push forward the clean energy transition in the region, and to potentially generate new renewable energy supplies for Europe”, the European Commission’s Directorate-General of Energy said in a news release, Rigzone reported.
“The EU and Azerbaijan’s strategic energy cooperation has shown all its flexibility and dynamism”, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said. “In 2019, there was only gas on the horizon. Not today. The Southern Gas Corridor has evolved to become a forum for cooperation also on renewables and electrification. This is an extraordinary result and is proof of how this project is forward looking and open to the future”.
“We have made clean energy a key part of EU-Azerbaijan bilateral relations”, Simson added. “The signature of the Memorandum of Understanding with EU wind companies in the margins of this Ministerial is a very important step”.
The meeting was held in parallel with the 10th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council.
In a joint statement, Co-Chairs Parviz Shahbazov, minister of energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Simson, reaffirmed the important role of the SGC as a reliable transmission system that secures stable and competitive energy supplies from Azerbaijan to the EU.
According to the joint statement, in 2023, around 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas were exported from Azerbaijan to the EU, which represented a more than 45 percent increase since 2021. In total Azerbaijan exported around 23.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2023 to the EU, Turkish, Georgian, and Serbian markets.
