I’m back in Baku after an intense four-day tour that took us along the length of Azerbaijan — from Baku to Nagorno-Karabakh via the liberated territories in south-west Azerbaijan.
I had hoped to write up copy while on the road, but the intensity of the schedule rendered that impossible. I’ve been transit from dawn till dusk since Sunday, visiting a plethora of energy sites and meeting a host of interesting people along the way. I feel like I’ve been travelling for four weeks.
I have a notebook full of shorthand, hundreds of photos and almost as many ideas for stories to tell about this fascinating country. The energy and geopolitical situation in the South Caucuses is undergoing profound and rapid change, which will have a direct bearing on Europe’s energy future.
I fly back to London tonight and will spend the following few days feverishly writing up the enduring narratives that define the South Caucuses energy story in 2024. Until then, I’ll leave you with a few photos and videoclips from the trip (best viewed on the website in a desktop browser).
The full write-up will be available to paying subscribers only. If you would like full access, I’ve extended the two-week free trial for a few more days:
A depiction of an oil gusher in the energy museum at state oil company SOCAR’s headquarters in Baku. They are very proud of their historic gushers, but Azerbaijan’s oil production is now about to plateau:
Unloading fertiliser from Turkmenistan in the Port of Baku. Plans are afoot to expand this tiny port to handle huge Chinese wind turbine blades for installation at future wind farms in the region:
Kamran Huseynov, deputy director of Azerbaijan’s state renewable energy agency, at Masdar’s 230MW Garadagh solar PV plant. He provided a huge amount of insight into the complexities of exploiting Azerbaijan’s vast renewables potential:
Speeding past nodding donkeys outside Baku. The landscape is littered with ancient oil derricks:
Pit stop for tea. Lots and lots of lovely tea:
An Archimedes screw at a mini-hydro plant powers the Agali net zero smart village:
Stocking up on Russian oil 😳
Grappling with rubbish feedstock at an energy-from-waste plant outside Baku:
A conceptual artwork depicting order from chaos, peace from the rubble, in the stunningly impressive Agali net zero smart village in Azerbaijan’s liberated territories:
Explaining the extremely risky de-mining operation underway in one of the most heavily mined lands in the world…
…including a live detonation of an unexploded anti-tank missile discovered during the de-mining operation:
Two Francis turbines at one of 27 (!) brand new hydro facilities with a combined capacity of 222MW built by Azer Energy since 2020 (!!!):
Elnur Soltanov, deputy energy minister and COP29 chief executive, meets Energy Flux in Baku. He provided a surprisingly frank and honest assessment of the challenges facing Azerbaijan’s presidency of the upcoming COP29 climate talks:
Oil gathering pipelines that pump crude from upstream wells and towards one of Azerbaijan’s three main oil export pipelines. Baku’s wealth and military firepower — which proved decisive in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict — are funded almost entirely by oil exports:
That’s it for now. Stay tuned for the full writeup…
— Seb