Renewable Energy and Regional Cooperation in Central Asia

Central Asia has many capacities to generate and use renewable energy. Addressing energy insecurity in the region may be the strongest incentive for Central Asian governments to develop renewable energy resources. Central Asia is rich in hydrocarbon reserves, but the uneven distribution of these resources across countries, burnout of facilities and inefficient energy management, threaten development of the whole region. However, moving towards alternative energy will also have many other advantages for the Central Asia region, including decreasing concerns about energy security in the region. Promoting regional cooperation is one of the definitive benefits of expanding renewable resources in Central Asian countries that the present paper seeks to address. The present literature tries to find an answer for the following questions: "How do implementing renewable energy projects by central Asian countries affect regional cooperation; and why?” The author argues that due to interdependence of the Central Asian countries in the field of energy, the renewable energy resources as their ​​common interest (and not as a parallel, divergent or conflicting interest) as well as the need for regional countries to have an integrated energy system, implementing renewable energy projects by the Central Asian countries can enhance intergovernmental cooperation in regional integration arena. Using descriptive-analytical method and the causal methodology the author tries to tell why the research findings provide an answer to the research question.