BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 5. Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power has started construction of three wind power plants with a combined capacity of 1.5 gigawatts in Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan region as part of a $3.06 billion renewable energy project.
This was reflected in a statement by ACWA Power.
The wind farms are being built in the Kungrad district in northwestern Uzbekistan and are expected to form one of the largest wind power projects in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), according to ACWA Power.
The project includes a 300-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS), about 1,500 kilometers of high-voltage transmission lines, three 500-kilovolt switching substations and the modernization of two existing substations.
The facilities are scheduled to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2027, according to ACWA Power.
The project is part of the Saudi company’s expanding renewable energy portfolio in Uzbekistan and its broader cooperation with the country in developing large-scale clean energy infrastructure.
ACWA Power has previously implemented the Nukus 1 and Nukus 2 wind projects in Karakalpakstan’s Beruniy and Karauzak districts, with a combined capacity of 300 MW.
Including the projects currently under construction, ACWA Power’s total wind power capacity in Karakalpakstan will reach about 2.3 GW, with total investment estimated at around $4 billion.
The projects are expected to generate approximately 8.77 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, supporting Uzbekistan’s efforts to expand renewable energy generation and diversify its power mix.
According to Trend’s calculations, the $3.06 billion Kungrad project represents an investment of about $2.04 million per MW of wind capacity. The 300-MW BESS equals 20% of the project’s wind generation capacity. The planned 8.77 billion kWh of annual generation translates into an average of about 5,847 kWh per kW of installed wind capacity per year. The project’s annual electricity output is also equivalent to an average generation rate of about 1,001 MW, or roughly 66.7% of its 1.5-GW wind capacity on an annualized basis.
