Uzbekistan Seeking Private Developers for 400 MW Solar Projects

The Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan has invited EoI from private developers to build and operate two solar projects worth 400 MW capacity in the country.

The Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan has invited expression of interest (EoI) from private developers to build and operate two solar projects worth a combined 400 MW capacity in the country.

The Government of Uzbekistan has initiated a broad energy strategy to increase the share of renewable energy generation with up to 5 GW in the next 10 years. As part of these reforms, the Government has engaged the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, as lead transaction advisor to assist them in structuring and tendering of up to 900 MW solar PV projects.

In line with which, the Government through its Ministry of Energy is seeking one or two private sector developer(s) or consortium/ consortia to separately develop, finance, construct, own and operate two solar photovoltaic (PV) independent power producer (IPP) plants, which will be located in the Samarkand and Jizzakh regions. It is currently envisaged that each Project will have a capacity of approximately 200 MWac.

Pursuant to Uzbekistan PPP Law, the tender will be conducted in two stages. The Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade and National Electric Grids of Uzbekistan are now seeking to identify parties with interest in the Project. The Prequalification stage starts with the invitation to express interest in the Project. Only those investors who expressed interest in the Project will be invited to submit prequalification applications, on their own or by forming consortia.

At the second stage prequalified prospective bidders will be invited to assess the Project, comment on the Project Agreements, and finally submit binding technical and financial proposals.

Electronic versions of the EoI should be submitted by Saturday, March 21, 2020, to the following email addresses: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Interested parties are allowed, but are not obliged, to accompany the scanned EoIs with a description of their references for power generation projects.

In October 2019, we had reported that Masdar, a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company was the winning bidder to develop the first public-private partnership (PPP) solar project under the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Scaling Solar programme in Uzbekistan. Announced by the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan, Masdar tendered the lowest tariff in the program’s competitive auction to develop the 100-megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar plant, which will be located in the Navoi region.

PC: Equinor