Barriers to the Development of Renewable Energy in Kazakhstan

Abstract

This research examines the barriers to renewable energy (RE) development in Kazakhstan through the lens of the Carbon Lock-In theory. Renewable energy development is essential for Kazakhstan to address its growing energy demand, diversify its energy resources, and align with global energy transition goals. The study categorizes barriers into three main groups—institutional, infrastructural, and behavioral—based on the Carbon Lock-In framework, which explains how entrenched systems, policies, and practices create obstacles to transitioning from fossil fuels. Institutional barriers include outdated regulations, lack of clear long-term policies, and misaligned incentives. Infrastructural challenges stem from aging energy grids and limited capacity for integrating renewable technologies, while behavioral barriers encompass resistance to change and entrenched preferences for traditional energy sources. By analyzing these barriers through in-depth interviews with experts and representatives from the energy sector, alongside secondary data such as reports from renewable energy companies and analyses of RE policies, the study seeks to provide a detailed understanding of the constraints slowing progress. Key findings reveal that all three types of lock-in, indeed, reinforce each other and create resistance to change. Institutional framework, while being flexible and the most responsive to up to date challenges in the RE area, is still prone to lock-in because it is still oriented to increasing the level of coal in the state. Infrastructure, which requires modernization due to being outdated and not meeting standards for the significant amount of RE integration to the current grid system. Modernization of existing infrastructure and building new objects of it requires substantial financing which is not currently sufficient. When it comes to behavioral lock-in, this study revealed some patterns of coal-based companies such as neglecting RE sector by inertia and, therefore, potentially hindering the process of its development. While this is changing, the path dependency that has been developed over the decades of history is clear and is considered to part of the lock-in. Overcoming these obstacles need systematic and comprehensive approach which requires scientific foundation underneath. This study seeks to contribute to that scientific foundation and, hopefully, to the development of Renewable Energy in Kazakhstan.