Nur Bukhara Solar PV LLC FE, a project company owned by Masdar, will provide a 63 MW battery energy storage system alongside a 250 MW solar power plant in south-central Uzbekistan.
From pv magazine ESS news place
Uzbekistan is lining up its first grid-scale battery energy storage project as it looks to stabilize and strengthen its existing electricity grids and increase the adoption of renewable energy.
Nur Bukhara Solar PV LLC FE, a project company owned by Masdar, will provide the 63 MW battery energy storage system in addition to a 250 MW solar power plant in the Alat district of the Bukhara region in south-central Uzbekistan. The project company has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with the National Electricity Grid of Uzbekistan and a 10-year operating term for the storage system.
The hybrid project has been announced as Central Asia’s first renewable energy initiative with an integrated BESS component.
Once completed, the project is expected to generate more than 585 GWh of renewable energy per year, expanding reliable electricity access to approximately 75,000 households.
The World Bank Group, the Government of Uzbekistan and Masdar signed a financial package for the construction and operation of the project. It includes a $53 million loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and loans of up to $106 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
The package also includes committed concessional senior loans of $20 million each from the Canada-IFC Blended Climate Finance Program and the ADB-managed Leading Asia’s Private Sector Infrastructure Fund, while the World Bank is providing a guarantee of up to $12 million to support the payments by the government. obligations from the project.
IFC will also offer interest rate swaps for the entire debt amount, which it says will allow the project to effectively manage interest rate risks.
“Our growing partnership with Uzbekistan on renewable energy sources brings clean and sustainable energy to the people at competitive prices,” said Wiebke Schloemer, IFC Director for Türkiye and Central Asia. “The new solar power plant with a battery energy storage system will not only boost the adoption of renewable energy in the country, but also help stabilize and strengthen existing electricity networks and support the global fight against climate change.”
Uzbekistan is leading the way in promoting renewable energy in the region, aiming to generate a quarter of its energy from clean energy sources by 2030.
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