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Post-COP drop? Azerbaijan grows renewables but gas still dominates
11/2/2026
8 min read
Feature
Azerbaijan’s renewable energy sector received a major boost after hosting the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Conference of the Parties in November 2024 (COP29), with the government recently upping its green power generation targets. It is, however, facing roll-out challenges, while the country also seeks to maximise exports of natural gas, particularly to Europe as it diversifies its import sources and reduces dependency on Russian gas, writes Paul Cochrane.
‘Hosting COP29 in Baku boosted the transition to renewables and green energy infrastructure. On the one hand, the government continued to highlight the energy corridor and gas exports to Europe, mainly due to security concerns and export revenues, while on the other hand it created political momentum for renewable energy goals,’ says Parviz Garibzade, an independent energy policy expert, serving as the Azerbaijan Country Expert for the International Energy Agency (IEA) through the EU4Energy Programme.
Before COP29, the Azeri government set a target of 30% of electricity generation to come from renewable energy by 2030. Due to the signing of numerous investment agreements, the target was upped in 2025 to 33.7% by 2027 and 38% by 2030. By January 2026, the country had already achieved 20.75% of installed capacity. ’Based on existing agreements, in the coming six years we will dramatically increase capacity from solar and wind to have 6 GW of wind and solar capacity by 2030, alongside further hydropower development. We have good potential for renewables, on and offshore, with abundant sunlight and wind,’ adds Garibzade.
Azerbaijan was one of the first countries to exploit its oil reserves, but such production has dwindled – dropping by almost a half between 2010 and 2024, to 540,000 b/d – forcing a pivot towards natural gas in recent decades, producing 51.5bn m3 in 2025. The lion’s share of gas came from the Shakh Deniz field, run by a consortium led by BP, at 27.9bn m3; followed by the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) fields at 14.1bn m3, and the Absheron field, also operated by a BP-led consortium, at 1.6bn m3 (all offshore fields). The state energy firm SOCAR accounted for 7.9bn m3 of total gas production.