TASHKENT

Saudi Arabia-based energy company ACWA Power has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with Uzbekistan’s government on a 100-megawatt wind power plant to be constructed in northwestern Uzbekistan.

The Karauzyak wind farm project worth $108 million is the first wind energy project in Central Asian country of which the foreign investor was selected in an open tender. ACWA Power won the tender in September, offering the lowest tariff of 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour of generated electricity.

The wind farm, to be constructed in Karauzyak and Beruni districts of the Karakalpakstan autonomous republic of Uzbekistan, is expected to be commissioned by mid-2023 and will ensure the production of 400 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year, the Energy Ministry said.

The wind farm will provide more than 110,000 people with an uninterrupted power supply once put into operation.

The project is part of the government’s wider programme aimed at diversifying the country’s energy balance by introducing alternative sources of electricity.

In 2020, Uzbekistan’s Energy Ministry and ACWA Power signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with a total value of $1.2 billion. Electricity will be generated by a 1,500-megawatt gas turbine power plant, which the company will build in the city of Shirin, Syrdarya region.

ACWA Power has two more similar projects agreed with the government of Uzbekistan, one of them to construct a wind farm with a capacity of 500-1,000 megawatts in the Navoi region.

The country hopes to increase its photovoltaic solar plant capacity and wind power generation to 8 gigawatts by 2026. Earlier this year, Uzbekistan increased its renewable energy target to a total of 12 gigawatts by 2030. The country now hopes to increase its photovoltaic solar plant capacity to 7 gigawatts and wind power generation to 5 gigawatts. The populous Central Asian country has set a goal of increasing to 25 percent the share of electricity generated from renewable sources in the total energy balance.