Kazakhstan is an energy rich country, both in fossil fuels and in renewable energy sources, such as hydropower, wind energy, solar radiation, geothermal energy and bio-fuels. However, for today, most of these green energy resources are left untapped. In 2014 renewable energy accounted for 0.6% of electricity generation, not including hydropower. Meanwhile, as of 2014, the share of hydropower in energy production in Kazakhstan was 8.1%, not including small hydropower stations, 73.1% of electricity generated came from coal fired power plants and 18.2% from gas turbine power plants.
Saule Akhmetkaliyeva was a research fellow in the Eurasian Research Institute at H.A.Yassawi Kazakh Turkish International University. She holds a BS in petroleum engineering from the Kazakh National Technical University named after K.I. Satbayev and a MS in Environmental Science from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi with a GPA of 4.0. Saule has conducted research on new methods of matrix acidizing of carbonate formations in Karachaganak field, Kazakhstan for her bachelor’s degree, and a research on advanced sedimentary analysis of sediments from Marmara Gölü, Turkey for her master’s thesis.