Now in full control of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan wants to make it a ‘green Silicon Valley’

Azerbaijan, a petrostate on the southeastern edge of Europe, has been propelled into the limelight as the location of COP29. This follows an agreement with its arch-rival Armenia to begin a peace process after decades of war.

Hosting the UN climate conference brings a new level of scrutiny to the country - and pressure for it to speed up its own green energy transition which it previously announced as a top national goal.

Much of those efforts centre on the region of Nagorno-Karabakh - over which Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a decades-long bloody war which led to many thousands of casualties and displacements on both sides.

In 2021, Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev designated Nagorno-Karabakh a “green energy zone” and announced investments into predominantly hydro, but also wind and solar power plants. 

After its victory in the war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan opened new hydropower plants in what it called a reconstruction effort. 

As of today, four brand new plants have been built and more than ten sites reconstructed after the damage they suffered during the war. In total, around 40 new hydropower plants of various sizes are planned. 

Between 2021 and 2023, Azerbaijan assigned over $2.3 billion (€2.1 bn) to a programme providing infrastructure for the resettlement of about one million Azeris in Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 2022, at least three per cent of the funds went to Azerenergy, the state-owned electricity producer, for hydropower development in the region. 

Speaking last September in the recently contested East Zangazur region, Aliyev said that the hydropower potential would stand at 270 megawatts by the end of 2024, “substantially supporting our green agenda.” 

In total, he added, “the East Zangazur