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

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