Plenitude energises 50-MW Kazakh solar park at hybrid complex site

• Eni’s Plenitude started commercial operations at a 50-MW solar plant in Kazakhstan, part of a hybrid complex supplying state-owned KazMunayGas.

Plenitude, the renewables arm of Eni, has brought a 50-MW solar park in Kazakhstan into commercial operation, adding another piece to a hybrid complex designed to deliver cleaner electricity to state-owned oil and gas company KazMunayGas. The site combines photovoltaic generation with complementary technologies nearby, smoothing output and improving grid value in a system still dominated by thermal power.

The new plant uses single-axis trackers and high-efficiency modules calibrated for the region’s continental climate—strong summer sun, harsh winters, and dust events that demand robust O&M. Plant-level controls provide voltage support, low- and high-voltage ride-through, and rapid curtailment response to meet local grid requirements. Co-location within a hybrid cluster reduces transmission losses, simplifies permitting, and enables coordinated dispatch with adjacent assets.

For Plenitude, Kazakhstan offers a laboratory for energy partnerships that bridge legacy and low-carbon systems. Supplying an industrial offtaker like KazMunayGas with contracted clean power creates a repeatable template: long-dated agreements, standardized equipment across sites, and optionality to add multi-hour batteries that shift midday solar into evening peaks and deliver fast frequency response. Even where storage is not built day one, preserving interconnection headroom and substation space has become standard design.

Community and environmental commitments feature prominently in project documentation: managed groundcover to limit erosion, drainage controls sized for intense precipitation events, and habitat buffers where arrays meet steppe landscapes. During operations, a unified SCADA platform across the hybrid complex allows performance analytics and predictive maintenance to keep availability high and life-cycle costs contained.

Strategically, the commissioning fits Plenitude’s broader push to assemble regional portfolios that blend generation types, offtake structures, and grid services. For Kazakhstan, it’s another marker that large energy players can help decarbonise heavy industry—delivering dependable daytime power and, over time, more dispatchable clean capacity as storage scales.