Uzbekistan has commissioned its first utility-scale solar plant of 100 MW. The plant has been developed by UAE’s Masdar. To build the project, Masdar signed an agreement with the government of Uzbekistan and JSC National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan in 2019. The scope of work included all aspects of design, finance, build, own and operations of the solar plant. A local project company, Nur Navoi Solar FE LLC, was established by Masdar to deliver the solar photovoltaic (PV) plant, and to operate and maintain it over a 25-year period.
Masdar has been an active engineering, procurement and construction company in the central Asian region, with a particularly strong presence in Uzbekistan. It has 900 MW of solar projects under development in the Uzbekistan, comprising 457 MW of solar PV in Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya province and two additional projects, with a combined capacity of 440 MW, in the Samarkand and Jizzakh regions.
In April 2021, Masdar also signed an implementation agreement with the Uzbekistan government to extend the capacity of the 500 MW Zarafshan wind energy project to up to 1.5 GW. Uzbekistan, like many countries in central Asia, has traditionally been dependent on oil and gas. The country is actively moving towards a renewable energy transition, with a declared goal of 7 GW of solar capacity by 2030. The transition to renewable energy will be vital in the region.
