The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is contributing Uzbekistan’s goal of 25GW solar and wind capacity by 2030 by organising a facility of up to US$229.4m for the development, design, construction and operation of a 500MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) and a 200MW solar photovoltaic power plant.
The plant will be located in the country’s Tashkent region.
Is is is one of the largest EBRD-supported BESS projects in the economies where the Bank operates.
The financing will be provided to ACWA Power Riverside Solar, a special purpose company fully owned by ACWA Power (an international developer, investor, co-owner and operator of a portfolio of power-generation, desalinated-water-production and green hydrogen plants).
The support scheme will consist of an A-loan up to US$183.5m (€169.8m) for the EBRD’s account and a B-loan of up to US$40.5m (€37.5m) to be syndicated to commercial co-financiers.
Parallel loans for the project will be provided by the German development corporation DEG, the French development agency Proparco, the Islamic Development Bank, KfW IPEX-Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
“We are proud to partner with ACWA Power and co-financiers on the pioneering Tashkent Solar PV and energy storage project in Uzbekistan, the largest of its kind in Central Asia,” said managing director of the EBRD’s Sustainable Infrastructure Group Nandita Parshad.
Once finished, the solar power project is expected to generate up to 418GWh of electricity per year and reduce annual CO2 emissions by more than 230,000 tonnes.