A subsidiary of Total Eren is to receive almost €88m in funding for a 100MW solar farm in Uzbekistan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Proparco, a subsidiary of Agence Francaise de Developpement.
The €87.7m finance is for Tutly Solar and will help fund the project near the city of Samarkand.
It will consist of an EIB loan of €43.7m and two loans of approximately €21.8m each from the EBRD and Proparco.
The project will help reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 160,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and generate 270 gigawatt-hours of electricity.
Electricity produced by Tutly Solar will be sold to the operator, National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan, through a 25-year power-purchasing agreement.
Total Eren chief financial officer Laurence Juin said: “We are pleased to have successfully finalised the financing of our first solar project in Uzbekistan, and I would like to thank the Uzbek authorities and our lenders, the EIB, the EBRD and Proparco, for their support, as well as our teams in Tashkent and Paris for their hard work.
“Total Eren is proud to be one of the first independent power producers to develop, build, and finance a solar project in Uzbekistan to supply the population with low-carbon electricity and help reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.
“We are eager to commission the Tutly solar farm and to develop other renewable energy projects in Uzbekistan and in the region.”
EIB vice-president responsible for operations in Uzbekistan Teresa Czerwinska said: “With Climate Action at the heart of the EIB investment activities, we are proud to support development of Tutly solar plant in Uzbekistan.
“The plant will make an important contribution to both country’s sustainable economic and social development, and allow Uzbekistan to reinforce the global fight against the climate change.
“This makes Tutly an investment in local economic development and the future of our planet.
“I am grateful to our partners from the European Union, the EBRD and Total Eren for the far-sighted partnership for a safe and prosperous future of Uzbekistan, Central Asia and the world.”
EBRD managing director of the sustainable infrastructure group Nandita Parshad said: “We are very proud to co-finance this landmark project conceived by Total Eren.
“It is contributing to Uzbekistan’s long-term decarbonisation strategy, which is being developed jointly with the EBRD and is designed to achieve carbon neutrality of the power sector by 2050, as well as to align development of the country’s power sector with commitments under the Paris Agreement.”
Proparco power and digital division head Anne Gautier said: “Proparco is pleased to contribute to financing the Tutly solar power plant, a unique project developed by Total Eren and our first project in the renewable energy sector of Uzbekistan.
This financing is fully in line with AFD Group’s ‘100% Paris Agreement’ commitment.”