Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power to Sign $2.4 Billion Wind Project Deal in Uzbekistan

Saudi Arabia based utility developer ACWA Power has said in a disclosure on Tadawul bourse that the company has signed a Heads of Terms (HoT) Agreement with Uzbekistan for the development of a 1500 MW wind energy project. As per the disclosure, the deal will be signed with the Ministry for Energy and Ministry of Investment & Foreign Trade of the Central Asian republic.

ACWA Power is partly owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF.

ACWA Power added that the big size wind energy project will be located in the Karakalpakstan (Uzbekistan) area and will attract an investment of $2.4billion. The project is expected to achieve financial closure by the end of 2023.

ACWA Power also held that the wind turbines will be fully commissioned by the first quarter of 2026. Once the project is ready, said ACWA Power, the wind power project will stand as the biggest single onshore wind energy site in the region and the world.

The project is also expected to contribute 19 per cent to total renewable energy targets of Uzbekistan.

 The green energy generated from the facility will power 1.65 million households and offset carbon dioxide emissions worth 2.4 million tonnes annually. It said that the impact of this agreement will be reflected in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Uzbekistan has set a target of having at least 25 percent of its energy requirements coming from renewable sources (solar, wind, and hydro) by 2030. The Government of Uzbekistan has set the year 2050 to reach carbon neutrality.

Last year, UAE based RE conglomerate, Masdar agreed with Uzbekistan to heighten the capacity of its utility-scale wind farm project to 1.5 GW.

Soon after that, in Uzbekistan, Masdar completed and inaugurated Uzbekistan’s first utility-scale solar plant of 100MW in August. French IPP Total Eren is also developing a 100 MWac solar photovoltaic (PV) project Tutly solar farm.