President of the International Sustainable Energy Organization (ISEO) Dr. Gustav R. Grob, visiting Azerbaijan in the framework of the “UN Renewable Energy Meeting” that is hosted by the Ministry of Energy and attended by the President of the International Eurasia Press Fund (IEPF) Umud Mirzayev.
During his visit to IEPF, Dr. Grob commented Eurasia Diary’s questions on the importance of Azerbaijan for Europe as an energy source.
Dr. Gustav R. Grob - Fellow of the Energy Institute, London, ex F.IP, Dean em., Initiator of the World Clean Energy Conferences with the UN in Geneva; Founder International Clean Energy Consortium ICEC SA, GEOCOGEN & STARWIND; Co-Founder and President of METHASYN EG; President MEDSHILD-REDSHILD Millennium projects, Chairman of ISEO/ISO TC203 Energy Systems Analyses & Statistics; Founder-Chairman of ISO/TC197 on Hydrogen Energy, International University for Sustainable Life IUSL; President of ISEO & CMDC
He said that Azerbaijan plays an important role for Europe. Azerbaijan is a part of the evolution of the oil and gas era. It is clear that one day oil and gas will be gone, but a good step in this direction was to build a methanol plant near Baku to produce methanol from natural gas as future universal clean fuel.
“Azerbaijan can make methanol also from organic waste because waste is a huge resource. Azerbaijan could become a big methanol producer also from waste. It is a part of the evolution from the petroleum age that started in Baku over 160 years ago. Azerbaijan has a chance to be one of the leaders in this process.”
Gustav Grob also talked about the importance of TANAP and the newly signed contract between BP and Azerbaijan. He mentioned that both are huge projects and Europe is hungry for petroleum, gas and methanol.
As for the regional energy and environmental security, Dr. Gustav said that all nuclear power plants, including Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant operating in Armenia, are a big threat for the South Caucasus and must be stopped as soon as possible, because nuclear power is the riskiest and most expensive source of electricity.
“I made an appeal to the United Nations to prohibit any uranium enrichment world-wide. It will stop the nuclear bomb problem and all nuclear power plants”
ISEO President also pointed out that the geographical location of Azerbaijan gives a chance to use alternative energy sources as well, such as wind power, biomass and solar energy. Solar energy is now competitive with any type of energy.
Commenting his discussions with the IEPF President, Gustav Grob said that they want to develop an industry zone in Nagorno Karabakh which was partly liberated from the Armenian occupation in order to create jobs for clean energy and establish a Solar Energy Center, because of the sunny climate.
According to him this would be a chance for young people to study electro-chemistry and electronics-engineering to develop Nagorno Karabakh and turn it into Techno Park.
Farid Hasanov
Photo: Samir Sadikhov
