TASHKENT

Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC (Masdar), one of the leading renewable energy companies in the world, signed a power purchase agreement with Uzbekistan for the construction of two photovoltaic power plants, with a capacity of 220 megawatts each, in the central Samarkand and Jizzakh regions.

The company pledged to supply electricity to Uzbekistan’s unified energy grid at “record low tariffs” for 25 years.

Electricity from the Jizzakh power plant will be supplied at a rate of 1.823 cents per kilowatt/hour of generated electricity and the Samarkand power plant at 1.791 cents per kilowatt/hour,  officials said at the signing ceremony.

Masdar, which won the tender two months ago, was chosen among 18 companies from China, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, South Africa, Russia, Spain, Norway and France.

Masdar will attract $300 million in foreign direct investments to implement the projects and construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2022, Sardor Umurzakov, Uzbekistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Investments and Foreign Trade minister, said.

“Masdar has indeed become a strategic partner of Uzbekistan in the power sector – as clearly evidenced by five project portfolios with a total value of over $2.4 billion and more than 2.5 megawatts projected capacity,” Umurzakov said.

Umurzakovadded that Masdar’s investments played a significant role to promote the Central Asian nation as a safe destination for foreign investments and positioning the country as a renewable energy hub in the Central Asian region.

Earlier this year Uzbekistan and Masdar announced to attract $1.8 billion investment to develop the largest wind farm in Central Asia, with the capacity of 1.5 gigawatts.

The implementation of these projects will help Uzbekistan achieve its goals of increasing the volume of electricity generated by solar energy up to 5 gigawatts and by wind energy to 3 gigawatts in the coming years.

The Central Asian country has been carrying out reforms in its energy sector to modernise ageing infrastructure and implement energy-efficient technologies, as well as to develop clean energy.

Uzbekistan plans to bring the share of alternative energy sources in the total energy balance of the country to 25 percent, which in turn will reduce its energy dependence on gas and coal.

In April, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree to build a hydrogen energy infrastructure to help Uzbekistan’s transition to a greener economy.

Masdar, which is owned by Mubadala Investment Company,  currently operates in more than 30 countries with a total renewable energy capacity of 10.7 gigawatts representing a combined investment of approximately $19.9 billion. It is also active in other former Soviet countries,  including Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kazakhstan.