Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov held a meeting with a World Bank delegation on energy. In the meeting held with the participation of Roger Coma Cunill, Senior Energy Specialist, Head of the Task Group, Practice Manager in the Europe and Central Asia Region Stephanie Gil, and other representatives of the World Bank, issues related to the financing of the strengthening of the transmission network were discussed in order to ensure the integration of renewable energy sources into the grid. The strengthening of the network for the integration of up to 2 GW of renewable energy into the energy system, the implementation status, and the financing possibilities of measures to connect the 1 GW of solar and wind power plants to be built by the Masdar company to the network were reviewed. Within the AZURE project, the importance of accelerating the relevant processes for the timely implementation of the connection of the 315 MW Banka and 445 MW Bilasuvar solar power plants to the energy system was noted.

The meeting also discussed the work carried out on the Support to the Energy Efficiency Fund and Road Map of the National Renovation Program component of the Energy Efficiency and Climate technical assistance project as a part of the AZTAF program, as well as other aspects of the energy cooperation agenda with the World Bank.