ALMATY – Kazakhstan’s renewable energy strategy is entering a new phase. After a decade of rapidly expanding wind and solar generation, the government is shifting its focus to hydropower as the missing link needed to stabilize an increasingly renewable electricity system.
Photo credit: Ministry of Water Resurces and Irrigation. The shift became clearer on July 31, when the government approved a Hydropower Development Plan through 2035, creating the country’s first long-term framework for identifying new projects, mapping river basins and preparing investment-ready sites.
The plan comes as Kazakhstan seeks to diversify its electricity mix while improving grid reliability, an increasingly important challenge as renewable energy capacity grows. From renewable expansion to system stability Kazakhstan’s renewable energy policy has produced measurable progress.
Renewables generated 6.43% of the country’s electricity in 2024, exceeding the national 2025 target a year early. Installed renewable capacity reached 3.03 gigawatts, including 1.52 GW of wind, 1.22 GW of solar, and 287.7 MW of small hydropower. At the same time, success has exposed a structural weakness familiar to electricity systems worldwide.
Unlike conventional thermal power plants, wind turbines and solar panels generate electricity only when weather conditions allow. As their share in the grid increases, so does the need for flexible generation capable of balancing fluctuations in supply and demand.
This appears to be the problem Kazakhstan is now trying to address. The Hydropower Development Plan outlines 30 measures across six priority areas, including river basin assessments, hydrological studies, environmental evaluations, land preparation and the creation of a national database of potential hydropower sites.
A digital platform will consolidate hydrological, technical and environmental information into a single resource for government agencies and investors. Future project selection will consider water availability, electricity demand, technical feasibility, environmental constraints and investment potential.
Perhaps most importantly, the strategy also introduces planning for pumped-storage hydropower: facilities capable of storing excess electricity generated during periods of low demand and releasing it when consumption peaks, a technology widely regarded as one of the most effective ways of balancing renewable-heavy power systems.
Although hydropower has long existed within Kazakhstan’s electricity mix, it has remained a relatively modest contributor compared with coal-fired generation and, more recently, wind and solar. The new plan elevates the sector’s role as it targets the commissioning of at least 500 megawatts of new hydropower capacity by 2030, while establishing a longer-term pipeline of conventional hydroelectric plants and storage facilities extending to 2035.
Several projects are already progressing, such as a 16-megawatt hydropower plant on the Kalzhyr River in East Kazakhstan, which is expected to be completed by 2030. Documentation is also underway for a 191.7 billion tenge (US$377.4 million) public-private partnership on the Ugam River that combines a drinking water pipeline with a cascade of hydroelectric stations.