- The Nukus wind project is the first renewable energy project governed by the new PPP law.
- ACWA Power will develop the project.
ACWA Power has broken ground on the 100MW Nukus wind project in Northwestern Uzbekistan. This was made known in a formal ceremony attended by H.E. Shavket Mirziyoyev, President, Republic of Uzbekistan; H.E. Yousef Saleh Algahrah Al-Otaibi, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the Republic of Uzbekistan, Mr. Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power, and senior officials from the Uzbek government.
The ground-breaking comes less than two months after binding project agreements were signed with the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan and JSC National Electric Grid (NEGU), the off-taker. With an estimated total investment of US$108 million, the project is in the Karatau district, Karakalpakstan region, in the North-western part of the country. It is expected to reach a financial close by Q3 2022.
The Uzbek government has plans to diversify the country’s energy mix and is targeting 8GW of solar and wind capacity by 2026. The Nukus wind project marks the republic’s first open, competitive tender in the wind energy sector. ACWA Power won the bid after proposing a tariff of US 2.5695 cents/kWh, the lowest in a tender process that included 11 other bidders.