Wind

Saudi Arabia's ACWA signs PPAs for 'Central Asia's largest wind & storage' complex

1.5GW Kungrad wind farm in Uzbekistan will include 300MW battery capacity and contribute to nation's 12GW renewable energy by 2030 goal

Registan Square in Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Registan Square in Samarkand, UzbekistanFoto: Ibrahim Erikan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
  • Tim Ferry

Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power signed $2.4bn in power purchase and investment deals with the government of Uzbekistan, paving the way for gigascale onshore wind development in the Central Asian nation.

The agreements are to develop the 1.5GW Kungrad wind farm, which the Saudi developer said is the “largest single site [development] in Central Asia”.

It will be constructed as three 500MW phases with each incorporating 100MW capacity battery storage.

“The signing of key agreements today for the landmark Kungrad wind farm project … will set a new benchmark for sustainable energy development in the region, and the world,” said Mohammad Abunayyan, ACWA Power chairman.

The Kungrad project is expected to achieve financial close by 2024 and be fully commissioned in 2027, when it will power 1.65 million households.

It is ACWA Power’s fifth project in Uzbekistan, and the company’s Uzbek portfolio also includes three wind farms and a combined cycle gas turbine project.

Uzbekistan has emerged as one of the most ambitious nations in wind and solar in Central Asia with a target to hit a 30% renewable power share off 12GW of capacity by 2030.

“Uzbekistan is committed to delivering on policy goals to increase the renewable energy share of the country’s energy mix and reduce carbon emissions,” said Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov, minister of energy of Uzbekistan.

The country's deputy energy minister last year told Recharge that Uzbekistan's transmission infrastructure will need “vast improvements” to support the new-build power plants, with work underway at state grid operator National Electric Grids of Uzbekistan with the backing of the World Bank.

Kungrad is expected to offset 2.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year and will have minimum environmental impact due to the use of the latest mitigation technologies.

ACWA Power is not the only Middle East developer active in Uzbekistan, which also has ambitions to act as a hydrogen hub supplying Europe and Asia.

The Saudi developer and the Uzbek government also formalised a $10bn investment deal signed last August 2022 to develop large-scale green hydrogen facilities.

Abu Dhabi’s Masdar in 2021 said it also plans to develop a 1.5GW onshore wind project there, with an initial 500MW in operation by 2024.

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Published 29 December 2022, 18:44Updated 30 December 2022, 06:40
Saudi ArabiaMiddle EastCentral AsiaACWA PowerUzbekistan