Abu Dhabi renewables firm Masdar on 9 June signed a deal to build and operate a 500MW wind farm in the Navoi region of southwest Uzbekistan for 2024 start-up. The wind project award follows Masdar’s securing of a 100MW solar PV project last November, which will also be developed in the Navoi region for commissioning in 2Q21. This was Uzbekistan’s first public-private solar project award, under a plan to develop 5GW of renewables capacity by 2030 (MEES, 15 November 2019).
While Masdar was the first Gulf energy firm to win an Uzbek power project, Saudi private firm Acwa Power followed in March with the signing of agreements with Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy for a 1.5GW CCGT plant in Shirin city in eastern Uzbekistan and 500MW-1GW of wind capacity. Acwa said its two projects would potentially be worth $2.3bn (MEES, 13 March). (CONTINUED - 139 WORDS)