On June 1, the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev arrived in Surkhandarya province and visited the construction site of the photovoltaic plant in Sherabad district, the presidential press service said.
The contract for a 457 MW plant project was awarded to Masdar (UAE), which offered the lowest tariff. The call for bids was carried out with technical and financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank. As part of the project, Masdar will also build a new 220 kW substation and a 52-kilometer transmission line to connect to the Surkhon substation.
A plot of 601 hectares has been selected for the plant. Masdar will attract US$ 260 million in direct investment. The plant will have an annual production capacity of 1.04 billion kWh.
The project will save 340 million cubic meters of natural gas per year, and 300 thousand households will be provided with electricity.
A thousand people will be involved in the project, and 120 specialists in the operation. The launch of the facility is scheduled for August 2023.
“The opportunity to purchase electricity at a cost of 1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour is a very great success for the economy of our country and an important factor in ensuring the public well-being. In general, the construction of this plant, the energy it generates and the new infrastructure will give a powerful impetus to the comprehensive development of the province, ”Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.
The president then laid a capsule to launch the construction of the photovoltaic plant.
The ceremony was also attended by the vice-president of the Asian Development Bank Ashok Lavasa while the UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei attended online.
The project is part of the photovoltaic plant projects program with a total capacity of 1 GW, implemented by the government of Uzbekistan with the support of the Asian Development Bank.
It is planned to build 200-megawatt PV plants with a capacity in the Samarkand and Jizzakh provinces, 100-megawatt wind farms in the Beruniy and Karauzyak districts of Karakalpakstan, as well as 3 wind farms with a total capacity of 1,500 megawatts in Bukhara and Navoi.
Uzbekistan has set a goal to increase the capacity of PV plants to 500, wind power plants to 3000, and hydroelectric power plants to 4000 megawatts by 2030.
