Uzbekistan Energy Situation

Uzbekistan
500px-Flag of Uzbekistan svg.png	Uzbekistan focused.png
Capital	Tashkent
Official Language(s)	Uzbek; Karakalpak
Government	Presidential Republik
President	Islam Karimov
Prime Minister	Shavkat Mirziyoyev
Total area in km2	447,400
Population	28,128,600
Rural Population	17,721,018
Urban Population	10,407,582
Population Density per km²	61.4
GDP (nominal)(million $US)	25712.00
GDP per Capita (US$)	945.60
GNI per Capita (US$):	948.30
Currency	Uzbekistan som (O'zbekiston so'mi) (UZS)
Time Zone	UZT (UTC +5)
Calling Code	+998

Geography and Climatic Conditions 

Uzbekistan is located in the heart of Central Asia. The physical environment is diverse with flat desert covering 80% of the country and mountains in the east reaching over 4,500m high. Shrubland and savannah comprise 47% of the territory and 27% is comprised of cropland.  It's climate is mainly continental with the average low temperature being  8.3°C and the average high temperature being 21.0°C  

Uzbekistan natural resources include natural gas, petroleum, and coal. Roughly 8.0% of Uzbekistan's land is covered by forest. The annual deforestation rate (between 2005-2010) was 0.12%

Socioeconomical Situation

Uzbekistan is Central Asia's most populous country with a population of 28 million inhabitants. 63% of the population lives in rural areas and 37% in cities. Its literacy rate is 99%.

The GDP in 2010 was 39 billion US$ and GDP per capita was 1,400 US$. GDP growth over recent years remained at high levels of 7 to 9%.

National income sources comprise of the following shares: agriculture (44%), industry (20%), and services: (36%)

45% of the population lives on less than 1.25 USD per day.

National Energy Situation

Uzbekistan is one of the few countries, which are fully self-sufficient in energy resources. It is the second largest of the Caspian gas producers, after Turkmenistan and its abundant natural gas resources are used both for domestic consumption and export.
Oil and natural gas  comprise 97% of the country's energy balance. Primary energy shares consist of 86.3% gas, 1.9% hydro, 2.5% coal and peet, and 9.3% crude oil.

Uzbekistan is the largest electricity producer in Central Asia. Total national electricity capacity is 12.6 GW (as of 2007), of which 88.5% is provided by thermal power plants and 11.5% by hydrop power plants. The price of electricity runs at 3.5 US Cent/kWh.

The national electrification rate is  94.4%, but electrical supply to rural areas is unreliable and of low quality. There are often power blackouts that last many hours per day.  Renovating the power transmission networks is one of the energy sectors priorities.

A National Energy Efficiency Strategy has been in place since 2001. Besides international initiatives a campaign has been carried out to install meters for consumers of natural gas and hot water. As a result, energy intensity of GDP decreased by 10%, from 0.96 kgoe/$ in 2000 to 0.86 kgoe/$ in 2004, still considerably high levels. There is also an Energy Efficiency Programme for the period to 2010, targeting 50% energy savings in the household and utility sectors.

 

Potential for Renewables

Due to its abundance of energy, the development of renewable energy is not a high priority for the Government of Uzbekistan, except hydro power. Uzbekistan has 18 large hydroelectric stations.

High start-up costs, low gas and elecricity prices, and the lack of renewable energy promoting policies are reasons for the limited use of renewable energy sources.Nonetheless, Uzbekistan's climate conditions favor solar energy. There are 250 sunny days per year.

Uzbkeistan also has a high potential for biomass energy generation as it is the fourth largst producer of cotton in the world.

Fuelwood is not a prospective option for energy production because Uzbekistan has very little forest coverage.

Uzbekistan has initiated 79 CDM project proposals of which 59 have already been approved.

Household Energy Situation

Share of Fuel Types

 

Fuel wood in the arid zones of Uzbekistan is often scarce as a result of deforestation and range degradation. Phasing out of energy subsidies has caused that livestock manure is used for heating and cooking, because alternative energy sources are no longer available or affordable. The country has used livestock manure in many traditional practices such as aerobic digestion (composting), anaerobic digestion (biodigesters), and as a direct application as organic fertilizer.

 

General Energy policy, Energy strategy

A National EE Strategy has been in place since 2001. Besides international initiatives a campaign has been carried out to install meters for consumers of natural gas and hot water. As a result, energy intensity of GDP decreased by 10%, from 0.96 kgoe/$ in 2000 to 0.86 kgoe/$ in 2004, still considerably high levels. There is also an Energy Efficiency Programme for the period to 2010, targeting 50% energy savings in the household and utility sectors.

Specific strategies (Biomass, renewable energies, rural electrification, energy access strategy etc.)

Currently the law “On Renewable Energy Sources” has been drafted. The national strategy on the development of RES is being formulated with the assistance of UNDP.