Uzbekistan's Energy Ministry will attract China Energy Construction Group to build solar power plants with a total installed capacity of 2 GW in three regions in 2024, the ministry's press service said on 15 February.
"A memorandum of understanding was signed with China Energy Construction Group on the construction of solar photovoltaic power plants with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts in Uzbekistan," Uzbekistan's Energy Ministry said on its own telegraph channel.
Within the framework of the memorandum, the Chinese company will invest US$ 2 billion directly in the construction of power plants in three regions of Uzbekistan - the Kashkataria, Bukhara and Samarkand oblasts.
The first capacity is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of this year and will be operating at full capacity in 2024. The stations will generate 5.2 billion kWh of electricity and save 1.4 billion cubic metres of gas per year.
The first two solar power stations are due to be completed in Uzbekistan in 2021-2022. Under the terms of a 25-year public-private partnership, Masdar, a renewable energy company from the UAE, and Total Eren, a French renewable energy developer, have put in 100 MW of capacity in the Navoi and Samarkand regions respectively. Masdar has also won a tender for the construction of three more plants with a total capacity of around 900 MW by autumn 2023.