Bp to build 240MW Azerbaijan PV project and electrify giant gas plant

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
The US$200 million site is expected to be under construction until mid-2027. Image: Unsplash.

A joint venture (JV) featuring global oil major bp has reached a final investment decision, and will begin construction, on a 240MW solar PV project in Azerbaijan.

Shafag Solar – a JV between bp, the Azerbaijan Business Development Fund and Azerbaijani energy firm SOCAR Green – will begin construction on the Shafag solar project in the Jabrayil district of Azerbaijan, following the closure of the investment.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

The project is contracted under a utility power purchase agreement (PPA) between state-owned power provider AzerEnerji and Shafag Solar, as well as a transmission connection agreement. The US$200 million site is expected to be under construction until mid-2027, to be developed and managed by bp’s fully owned solar development subsidiary, Lightsource bp.

Another bp undertaking – the Sangachal terminal electrification (STEL) project – has also been sanctioned in conjunction with the solar project. STEL is a JV featuring a trio of global fossil fuel majors: bp, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies, alongside a number of Azerbaijani entities. The project will enable connection between the terminal and the national grid, operated by the state-owned power provider AzerEnerji, as well as adding a new 220/110 kV substation.

The Sangachal terminal is an industrial oil and gas processing complex on the coast of the Caspian Sea, south of Baku.

The two projects will be linked, bp said, by a structure called a “virtual power transfer agreement“. Power from the solar project will be delivered to AzerEnerji in the Jabrayil district, and AzerEnerji will deliver the equivalent amount of power to the STEL site near Baku.

Bp said the arrangement will reduce operational emissions at the Sangachal terminal, which currently runs on seven gas turbines. As it is electrified, the turbines will be removed.

“Within the framework of president Ilham Aliyev’s policy of promoting the use of green energy, the completion of this important phase by both the Shafag and Sangachal terminal electrification projects opens a new chapter in our country’s strategic energy partnership with bp,” said Parviz Shahbazov, minister of energy of Azerbaijan.

Aliyev announced plans to deploy 6GW of renewable energy in Azerbaijan by 2030, during a conference at the COP29 summit in Baku last year. At the time, he said that 10GW of contracts and memoranda of understanding (MOU) had been signed, including a mammoth agreement with the Emirati state-owned renewable energy developer, Masdar.

Earlier this year, bp made controversial headlines with its plans to divest its ownership of Lightsource bp. The move came as part of plans to move away from renewable energy following the election of US president Donald Trump. PV Tech Premium heard in February that the course change could face legal action.

25 November 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe continues to be the place to leverage a network that has been made over more than 10 years, to build critical partnerships to develop solar projects throughout the region.
2 December 2025
Málaga, Spain
Understanding PV module supply to the European market in 2026. PV ModuleTech Europe 2025 is a two-day conference that tackles these challenges directly, with an agenda that addresses all aspects of module supplier selection; product availability, technology offerings, traceability of supply-chain, factory auditing, module testing and reliability, and company bankability.
10 March 2026
Frankfurt, Germany
The conference will gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing out to 2030 and beyond.

Read Next

June 4, 2025
Independent power producer (IPP) Enlight Renewable Energy is expanding its Gecama Wind Project in Castilla La Mancha, Spain, by integrating solar PV and battery energy storage systems.
June 4, 2025
Tariffs on US imports will increase the cost of US solar PV and energy storage technologies and slow the rate of project development, according to analysis from Wood Mackenzie.
June 3, 2025
Danish renewables firm European Energy has secured a €145 million (US$158 million) long-term loan to finance a 78.5MW solar park co-located with a 50MW battery storage plant in Anykščiai, Lithuania.
June 3, 2025
The US Department of Energy budget proposal promises to remove funding for solar and wind energy and expand support for nuclear weapons.
June 3, 2025
Greek renewables developer PPC has acquired an 88MW solar PV plant in the village of Vedrare, in the Karlovo region in central Bulgaria.
June 2, 2025
A new manufacturing method has produced tandem perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells with a conversion efficiency of 27.8%.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
June 17, 2025
Napa, USA
Upcoming Webinars
June 30, 2025
10am PST / 6pm BST
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece