Professor Murman Margvelashvili charts Georgia’s path from Soviet-era systems to a contested contemporary energy landscape, where hydropower dependence, emerging technologies, and grid vulnerabilities intersect with strategic autonomy.
Murman Margvelashvili
Professor Murman Margvelashvili is a Georgian energy policy expert with more than 30 years of experience, in energy sector. His broad interests include energy security, sustainability, and geopolitics of energy transition.
As Director of Energy Studies at World Experience for Georgia, Associate Professor at Ilia State University, and Director of the Energy and Sustainability Institute, he has helped shape key national energy strategies. Notably, Professor Margvelashvili played a key role in shaping the National Energy Policy and National Energy and Climate Plan, as well as conceptualizing the National Hydrogen Strategy.
He contributes as a country expert for the EU4Energy programme under the International Energy Agency and consults widely across Georgia and Central Asia, advancing renewable energy, efficiency, and regional energy security initiatives.
Content
00:00 – Introduction
01:58 – From Soviet system to 2025: evolution of Georgia’s energy mix
05:03 – Dependency and geopolitical risk across Georgia’s energy sources
09:17 – Ownership and control of Georgian hydropower
10:53 – Hydrogen in Georgia: prospects and pathways
15:16 – Have renewables peaked? Headroom for additional capacity
17:18 – Nuclear power in Georgia: options, debates, feasibility
19:52 – Abkhazia and South Ossetia: implications for Georgia’s power grid
22:48 – Balancing Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Russia, the EU and China: safeguarding strategic autonomy
32:53 – Expanding Caspian gas to Europe: do new Georgian transit pipelines need to be built?
34:51 – Armenia’s role in Georgia’s energy geopolitics
36:50 – United States interests in Georgia’s energy sector
38:51 – Türkiye–Azerbaijan energy cooperation: impacts on Georgia
43:03 – Untapped and hidden energy potential in Georgia
45:40 – Reinvesting transit revenues into energy modernisation
50:20 – Supply shocks and blackouts: resilience and response
53:21 – Assessing the effectiveness of Georgia’s energy strategy
56:35 – Governance gaps and failures: lessons for reform
01:02:14 – Under-researched energy topics in Georgia
Official Website:
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
