On July 12, Tashkent hosted a ceremony of signing project agreements with Masdar (UAE) for two photovoltaic power plants to be built in Samarkand and Jizzakh provinces, the Ministry of Energy said.
An open tender for photovoltaic power plant projects with 220 MW capacity each in Kattakurgan district of Samarkand province and Galyaaral district of Jizzakh province was held in accordance with international standards with the technical support of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
One of the strengths of the UAE company was the proposal for the electricity price, at the lowest rates for 25 years. Thus, electricity from the Jizzakh power plant will be supplied to the unified power grid at a rate of 1.823 cents per kWh and from the Samarkand power plant - 1.791 cents.
Masdar is expected to invest up to US$ 300 million in these projects, with financial closure scheduled for December 2021 and the project is to be launched in Q1 of 2022.
The Ministry of Energy noted that these power plants will contribute to the achieving the capacity of the renewable energy sources to 8 GW by 2030. It will also help reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
