Masdar's Garadagh solar plant ignites inspiration and innovation in Azerbaijan

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For Rajab Huseynli and his proud farming family in the Gobustan area of Azerbaijan, “Energy is everything.” When he saw the Garadagh solar PV plant that Masdar developed in partnership with the Republic of Azerbaijan, the project “inspired us to do something important for our world,” Huseynli says. Bringing the global transition to renewable energy home, literally, Huseynli designed and built his own wind generator to power his family’s farm – but he didn’t stop there.

As the Garadagh plant came to life near his home in the country where the world’s first oil well was drilled, Huseynli was inspired to explore what was possible. He went on to study engineering, continuing to learn about renewable energy and receiving a prize from the president of Azerbaijan for his robotics work. “Masdar showed me that I can be a power for good and a power to change.”

The 230 megawatt (MW) Garadagh is the largest solar PV plant in the Caspian Sea region, powering 110,000 homes in Azerbaijan and reducing carbon emissions by 200,000 tons per year. In the coming years, Masdar and the Azerbaijan government plan to add 10 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy to the national grid. “Masdar has given us a very special thing,” Huseynli says, “Hope for the future.”