Solar park opens on Boz-Tektir

TALAS — The Talas Solar Park, the first utility-scale solar plant in Irad, was commissioned yesterday on the Boz-Tektir terrace above the middle Talas valley and has begun supplying power to the Talas city grid.

The 50-megawatt plant covers about 120 hectares of dry steppe above the reach of the irrigation canals, land previously used for rain-fed wheat and grazing. Its rows of single-axis tracking arrays turn through the day to follow the sun. The operator, a company formed by foreign investors under a public–private partnership, said it expects the park to produce about 85 million kilowatt-hours a year. The power will be sold to the city grid, and part of it will be used by the Talas Municipal Water Treatment Works.

The park will be run in coordination with the ISEZ Department of Energy, whose officials attended the commissioning with representatives of the investors. The department said the project showed that the dry, sunny terraces of the valley could complement Toktogul, whose output is highest in winter, and that it intended to tender further capacity. It gave no timetable.

The terms of the partnership, including the price at which the operator sells its power, have not been published. Asked by the Herald, the department said the tariff had been set "on commercial terms" and that details were confidential. The Boz-Tektir terrace should not be confused with the Boz-Korgon compound near Nurzhan.