The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is financing a pilot renewable hydrogen facility in Uzbekistan, consisting of a 20MW electrolyser and a greenfield 52MW wind power plant.
The EBRD is offering a financial package of US$65m to ACWA Power UKS Green H2 for the development, design, construction and operation of the facility.
This special purpose company is jointly owned by ACWA Power and Uzkimyosanoat (UKS), a holding company of state-owned chemical enterprises in Uzbekistan.
The package consists of a US$55m senior loan provided by the EBRD as well as concessional finance of up to US$10m from Canada under the Special Fund for the High Impact Partnership on Climate Action (HIPCA).
The EBRD is also planning to provide an equity bridge loan of up to US$5.5m for the project.
Nandita Parshad, EBRD managing director for the sustainable infrastructure group, EBRD, said: “EBRD is proud to finance this landmark renewable hydrogen facility in Uzbekistan with our long-standing partner ACWA Power and their partner Uzkimyosanoat.
“This is the first of its kind across Central Asia, a region with some of the most carbon-intensive and hard-to-abate industries.”
The plant will be the second renewable hydrogen production project financed by the EBRD following the Bank’s support for a renewable hydrogen facility in Egypt in 2022.
The project supported by the Japan-EBRD Cooperation fund, will help replace grey hydrogen, produced from natural gas and widely used in the production of ammonia fertiliser in Uzbekistan, with renewable hydrogen.
The latter is recognised as a key alternative for decarbonising the fertiliser production sector.
Once operational, the facility is expected to produce up to 3,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen annually and to reduce annual CO2 emissions by around 22,000 tonnes.
HIPCA is supported by Austria, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the TaiwanICDF, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Uzbekistan has been the leading recipient of EBRD funding in Central Asia for four years in a row.
To date, the Bank has invested around €5bn in 164 projects across the country, with most of those funds supporting private entrepreneurship.