The Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan has awarded a tender to Masdar for the construction of a 457MW solar PV plant in the Sherabad district of the Surkhandarya region. The winning bid proposed an energy tariff of $1.8045 cents per kWh.
The President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev formally launched the implementation phase of the project on a visit to the site on 1 June 2021.
Energy Minister of Uzbekistan, Alisher Sultanov, said: “Solar power is a priority for Uzbekistan, and we look forward to reaching our target of 1GW set by the programme. Our solar energy strategy will create highly skilled, local clean energy jobs in line with the government’s program for energy diversification.
“The global solar energy market has doubled since 2019, with a record number of new installations targeted. In Uzbekistan, we are very happy to join the international community of solar power generators and have an industrial solar strategy in place.”
The goals of the programme are to lower energy costs for the Uzbek population, decrease the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, and reduce overall CO2 emissions. Once complete, the Sherabad plant’s annual output will be 1.04 billion kWh which will save 340 million cubic meters of natural gas per year and provide 300,000 households with electricity.
The Sherabad project is part of a wider programme to construct solar PV plants with a total capacity of 1GW. The programme is being implemented by Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, with support from the Asian Development Bank.
The project also includes the construction of a new 220 kV substation and a 52 km transmission line to connect to the 500 kV Surkhan substation.
Besided Masdar, four other short-listed candidates submitted final commercial, technical and financial proposals.
