TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, September 24. Solar panels with a total capacity of 1,748 MW have been installed at 133,786 facilities across Uzbekistan, Trend reports citing the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis.
The installed capacity includes 385 MW at 20,416 facilities in the social sector and state institutions, 948 MW at 30,713 business facilities, 27.5 MW at 2,155 apartment buildings, and 388 MW at 80,502 private households.
Despite this progress, several challenges remain. At 2,139 facilities, solar panels with a combined capacity of 29 MWwere not installed on time, while panels totaling 6.1 MW at 281 facilities are currently out of service.
Uzbekistan has already launched annual production of 770 MW worth of solar panels at seven enterprises, as well as more than 200,000 solar water-heating collectors at five enterprises. However, the country has not yet developed domestic production of wind turbines. In addition, there is still no mechanism for recycling or disposing of panels that have reached the end of their service life or become defective.
In response to these issues, lawmakers decided to send a parliamentary inquiry to the Minister of Energy, requesting detailed clarifications on the progress of renewable energy deployment, the organization of local production of equipment, and measures to prevent the environmental impact of decommissioned solar panels.
