The government of Uzbekistan has awarded 500MW of solar capacity in its latest tender, launched in July 2022, with three winning solar projects.
Among the winning bidders is UAE-owned renewables energy company Masdar with a 250MW solar PV plant to be built in the Bukhara region with a winning price of US$0.0304/kWh and will be the first project to implement a battery energy storage system (BESS) with 62MW output.
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This is not the first project for Masdar in Uzbekistan, a country were it previously commissioned the first utility-scale solar PV project last year with 100MW of capacity.
Overall, Masdar has been quite active recently in the region with a 100MW solar agreement in Turkmenistan, achieving financial close for a 230MW solar PV plant in Azerbaijan or a 1GW memorandum of understanding for renewables in Kyrgyztan.
Other winners include a consortium between Chinese renewables GD Power and Chinese state-owned energy company PowerChina for a 150MW project in the Namangan region and with a price of US$0.048/kWh and French renewables Voltalia with 100MW solar plant in the Khorezm region and with the lowest price bidding at US$0,028/kWh.
Voltalia’s plant will use bifacial panels mounted on trackers and is expected to be commissioned in 2024.
“Uzbekistan will be one of Voltalia’s key markets going forward and we are proud to support the country in reaching its ambitious 2030 targets, substantially increasing the country’s renewable electricity production and its energy independence,” said Sébastien Clerc, CEO of Voltalia.
With a recent growth activity of renewables in Uzbekistan, driven itself by a number of low priced solar PV tenders launched by the country’s government, the country increased last summer its 3GW of solar capacity target by 2030 to 7GW.