Georgia
Georgia’s energy sector is leaking money — into Russian coffers
Strategic energy projects remain stalled or abandoned with millions instead going to pay arbitration disputes led by Russia and Turkey.
renewable energy
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Azerbaijan
Opinion | Jack of all trades, master of none: Azerbaijan seeks renewables to sustain the status quo
Opinion | Jack of all trades, master of none: Azerbaijan seeks renewables to sustain the status quo0:00/6:451× Increasing investments in renewables may seem like a positive change, battling the climate crisis and diversifying Azerbaijan’s oil-dependent economy. Yet, without a decrease in fossil fuel investments and renewables mostly exported, there may not be a change after all. Azerbaijan, an authoritarian petro-state, is hosting COP29, the global conference to grapple with the climate c
Environment
Podcast | Going against the flow: Georgia’s controversial hydropower plants
Georgia generates a staggering 85% of its electricity through hydropower plants; however, while further exploitation of Georgia’s hydropower potential sounds promising on paper, local activists and researchers say that a lack of feasibility and safety research before the construction of hydropower plants could pose significant risks. This week on the Caucasus Digest, Hannah O’Sullivan, an energy researcher, talks about the present and future role of hydropower in Georgia.
Environment
Georgia’s ‘zombie’ hydropower projects
As Georgia’s government promises to resume the construction of controversial hydropower plants (HPPs) in western Georgia, local people remain determined to fight against changes they believe could leave their land and livelihoods at risk. ‘I would have never imagined the topic of its construction would pop up again’, says Magda Guledani. In March 2018, Guledani was in her third trimester of pregnancy when she lay on the ground in front of construction equipment in the northwestern Georgian t
Armenia
Pashinyan: Negotiations underway over new nuclear power plant
Negotiations over building a new Nuclear Power Plant in Armenia are underway, Pashinyan said on Wednesday during a parliamentary Q&A session․ According to Pashinyan, the offer to build the plant was made to Armenia by one of the owners of GeoProMining, one of the largest industrial companies in the country, which will also build a new large scale copper smelter in the country. ‘Armenia will no longer export copper concentrate and import ready-made copper’, Pashinyan said, adding that the
Georgia
Villages under blockade after government’s failed public outreach over energy project
After unsuccessful outreach to local opponents of the Namakhvani HPP project, the government has moved on the offensive in the Rioni Valley, erecting police checkpoints blocking off the area and removing protest tents. On Monday, opponents of Namakhvani HPP tried to break through the police lines in the village of Gumati, 10 kilometres north of the west Georgian city of Kutaisi. It followed the removal by police the previous day of a protest camp set up in the village of Namokhvani. Th
Environment
Thousands turn out for Kutaisi hydropower protest
Thousands have turned out to protest in Kutaisi against the construction of the nearby Namakhvani hydropower project Protesters gathered on the west-Georgian city’s central square on Sunday calling on the authorities to revisit their ‘unlawful’ decision to support the project. Opponents have vowed to ‘picket’ the city in two weeks time if their demand is not met. ‘If they don’t take into account today’s meeting and what is happening here, we’ll agree to gather again in two weeks’, Varlam Gol
