Contents

• General State of the Economy
• Energy resources
• Energy Balance
• Energy Infrastructure
• Education and Innovation
• Ecology and Environment Protection
• References

Georgia is a country located in the South Caucasus region at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. The country borders Russia to the north, Armenia and Turkey in the south and Azerbaijan to the southeast. Georgia is bounded on the west by the Black Sea, with a total coastline of 310 km.
According to 2023 statistics, Georgia is home to about 5 million people. In terms of population density the country is 166^th in the world from 248 countries considered. The national capital and largest city is Tbilisi. The political form of government is a semi-presidential republic and the administrative map of the country is divided into 9 regions, 1 city, and 2 autonomous republics [1,2,3].
 

Source: [1,2,3,4,5]

Tbilisi, Georgia. Envato Elements. LW7GJ5V936
 

The rating positions of Georgia relative to other countries have been determined for an extensive list of economic, energy, innovative and educational indices, as well as for metrics reflecting the state of the environment. The economic indices include, for example, GDP per capita, annual average GDP growth, high-technology exports, and others. The list of energy indices includes proven reserves of oil, gas and coal, production-consumption ratio combined, and energy use, etc. Each of the indices has a ranked list of included member countries. Since the number of countries in each rating is different for each index, the positioning of the country of interest is displayed on a special chart, where the vertical axis is a uniform relative scale from 0 to 1, whereas the horizontal axis denominates the various indices and respective numbers relating to the descriptions given underneath.
Thus, in such a relative “0-1” diagram, the country’s position is marked with a dot in proportion to its location in the original rating list. If the country is among the leaders regarding the selected indicator, it will be marked close to 1 in the upper green zone on the relevant chart “0-1”, if the country is an outsider in the rating list, then it will be marked in the lower red zone of the chart “0-1”, etc.

Ranking position of Georgia for list of economic indices:

Georgia has no significant reserves of fossil fuels. For example, the share of oil reserves in the country relative to the world's reserves is 0.002%, the share of natural gas is 0.004%. The share of coal is slightly higher – 0.02%. In terms of tons of oil equivalent, according to 2024 data, conventional proved reserves by fuel type were: 3.1% – oil, 5% – gas, and 91.9% – coal (Fig.5).

Table 1. Fossil energy resources of Georgia

* share of the country’s reserves in world total is provided in brackets

Of all renewable energy sources, hydropower has the greatest potential and the country relies heavily on it to meet its electricity needs. Thanks to its thousands of rivers, Georgia ranks among the highest in terms of water resources per capita, and hydropower provides about 80% of the country's electricity. According to the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, out of 26,000 rivers, 300 rivers can provide excellent opportunities for hydropower generation, yet only 22% of the total hydro potential has been utilized to date [7].

Table 2. Renewable energy resources of Georgia

*for the majority of the territory of the country

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (Mar 2024) / https://www.eia.gov

Figure 2. The Production and Consumption of fossil fuels in Georgia (left — coal, in the center — gas, right — oil)

As can be seen from the graph above, natural gas and crude oil consumption increased by a factor of about 2.5 between 2003 and 2022. Coal consumption has increased more than 30-fold in that time. Almost all fossil fuels are imported.

Total electricity consumption in Georgia almost doubled over the past ten years. In 2022, approximately 75.6% of electricity was produced by hydro power plants, 23.8% – by thermal power plants and 0.6% – by other renewables. The country has been experiencing a shortage of domestically produced electricity since 2019, and in 2021 about 15% of electricity was imported, the main reason for which was the partial stoppage of the Enguri hydroelectric dam. In 2022, the share of imports in the consumption decreased to 4.5% [13].   

A territorial map showing distribution of the largest infrastructure projects of the fossil fuel sector in Georgia is displayed in Figure 5. Georgia is an important transit country for the region, with a number of major oil and gas pipelines running across its territory. Three terminals and storages located on the Black Sea coast provide a wide range of services for the storage and transportation of oil, oil products and natural gas. In addition, Vladikavkaz-Tbilisi Gas Pipeline includes Kvesheti compressor station in the north of the country.
The main international energy projects of Georgia are the Baku-Tbilisi-Supsa and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipelines. The first of them was put into operation in 1999, the second in 2006. The volume of oil transportation through the Baku-Tbilisi-Supsa oil pipeline can reach 7 million tons per year, and through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline more than 50 million tons per year. However, the dependence of oil delivery on the conditions of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and the insignificant capacity significantly reduced the competitiveness of the Baku-Tbilisi-Supsa oil pipeline. In this regard, pumping through this pipeline is often interrupted. On the other hand, the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan oil pipeline provides direct access to the deep-water port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, the loading of this oil pipeline is 1.2 million barrels of oil daily.

Figure 5. Basic infrastructural facilities of the fossil fuel sector in Georgia

As already mentioned, up to 80% of the electricity produced in Georgia is generated by hydroelectric power plants. Hydro power plants are spread across the country with the main being the Enguri HPP, which generated the 26% of electricity produced in Georgia. According to the Transparency International Georgia report [13], by the end of 2022, Georgia had 109 hydropower plants, 5 thermal power plants and 1 wind power plant.

 Figure 6. Electricity production and Renewable energy in Georgia

The 20.7 MW Qartli wind farm, located in Gori, about 90 km from Tbilisi, has been in operation since 2017 and is the first commercial wind farm built in Georgia. It accounts for about 0.6% of local electricity generation in Georgia.

Industrial cranes in sea port, Batumi, Georgia. Envato Elements. 2J3N6SLZ8K

Wind and solar technologies do not yet contribute significantly to electricity generation. The government plans to change the situation by introducing the potential of wind, solar, biomass and geothermal resources for the development of new energy capacities, which will reduce dependence on energy imports and increase the country's energy security. Georgia presented a draft National Energy and Climate Plan, one of the main objectives of which is to achieve a 27.4% share of renewable energy sources in gross final energy consumption by 2030, with 85% renewable energy sources for electricity, 10.45% – transportation, and 7% – heating and cooling [14].

[1] List of sovereign states and dependencies by area / Wikipedia / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependencies_by_area
[2] List of countries and dependencies by population density / Wikipedia / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density
[3] Georgia / The world factbook / Library / Central Intelligence Agency / www.cia.gov
[4] GDP, PPP (constant 2011 international $) / World Bank, International Comparison Program database. License: CC BY-4.0 / Data / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[5] GDP per capita, PPP (current international $) / World Bank, International Comparison Program database. License: CC BY-4.0 / Data / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[6] International Energy Statistic / Geography  / U.S. Energy Information Administration / www.eia.gov/beta/international/
[7]  Renewable Energy in Georgia Challenges and opportunities /October 2019 / PDF / https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/energy/se/pp/gere/GERE.6_Oct.2019/2_RE_Auctions/2_M.Arabidze_Georgia.6th.GERE.pdf
[8] Solar resource data obtained from the Global Solar Atlas, owned by the World Bank Group and provided by Solargis / Global Solar Atlas / globalsolaratlas.info
[9] Wind Map / Global Wind Atlas 2.0, a free, web-based application developed, owned and operated by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in partnership with the World Bank Group, utilizing data provided by Vortex, with funding provided by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). For additional information: globalwindatlas.info
[10] Agricultural land (% of land area) /Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site. License: CC BY-4.0 / Data / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[11] Forest area (% of land area) /Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site. License: CC BY-4.0 / Data / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[12] What a Waste 2.0 (PDF) / Resources / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[13]  The Georgian Electricity Sector in the Years 2010-2022 / 11 April, 2023 / PDF / https://transparency.ge/en/post/georgian-electricity-sector-years-2010-2022
[14]  Implementation Report Georgia / Energy Communication / https://www.energy-community.org/implementation/report/Georgia.html

The sources of charts and curves are specified under the images.

For more information about the energy industry in Georgia see here