BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 2
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
Masdar (UAE) has signed an agreement to increase the design capacity of its wind farm project in Uzbekistan to 1.5 GW, Trend reports with reference to the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan.
The agreement on expanding the design capacity was signed by the investor by the General Director of Masdar Mohamed Jamil Al Ramahi and by the Uzbek side by the Deputy Minister of Energy - Sherzod Khodjayev and the Deputy Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade - Shukhrat Vafayev.
According to the information, in 2020, Masdar entered into bilateral agreements with the government of Uzbekistan to design, build and operate a 500-megawatt (MW) wind farm, the second large-scale clean energy project in the country and one of the largest wind farms in Central Asia. The project will attract over $600 million in foreign direct investment.
With the signing of a new agreement, the capacity of the project, which will be located in the Zarafshan district of the Navoi region, has increased to 1.5 GW, which will further help Uzbekistan achieve its goals of generating up to 3 GW of energy by 2030 from wind power plants (WPPs).
It was noted that the 500 MW wind farm in Zarafshan is expected to be put into commercial operation by the end of 2024. Due to this capacity, the wind farm will be able to generate the amount of electricity sufficient to supply 500,000 houses. It will also help prevent up to 1.1 million tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere per year.
In addition, the investment agreement for the Zarafshan wind farm project and the agreement on the purchase of electricity was signed by the Uzbek side with Masdar in June 2020.
Also, in December last year, Masdar announced the completion of the financing stage for the Nur Navoi 100 MW solar project, the first successfully funded solar project in Uzbekistan for independent energy producers (IPP). Masdar was announced as the winning bidder for this solar project following the company's approval of the lowest electricity tariff proposal at $2.679 / kWh.
Masdar, the renewable energy company, promotes renewable energy, sustainable urban development and clean technologies to address global sustainability challenges. Today Masdar operates in more than 30 countries, including the UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Egypt, Morocco, UK, the USA, Australia, Spain, Serbia, India, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and others.
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