Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has announced reaching financial close on a 300 MW solar plus 75 MWh battery energy storage project in Uzbekistan.
Masdar is set to design, build and operate the Guzar solar-plus-storage project, to be located in the southern Kashkadarya region, under a public-private partnership agreement with JSC National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan. Once operational, the project is expected to increase the country’s electricity production capacity by 634 GWh annually.
The developer has secured more than $225 million ($193.6 million) for the project, through $195.5 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and a $30 million financing package from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
ADB’s financing package includes a $12.5 million loan from the bank, as well as a $12.5 million loan from the Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund 2 and a $5 million loan from the Canadian Climate and Nature Fund for the Private Sector in Asia, both of which are administered by ADB.
ADB is also providing a partial credit guarantee to Nur Kashkadarya Solar PV Foreign Enterprise LLC, the special purpose vehicle established for the project and wholly owned by Masdar, of up to $9 million to help mitigate risks associated with the power offtaker’s payment obligations.
The Guzar project forms part of Masdar’s plan to deploy 2 GW of renewables in Uzbekistan. It is the ninth Masdar project ADB has funded, six of which are in Uzbekistan.
In October, EBRD announced it was funding two solar-plus-storage projects in central Uzbekistan majority owned by Saudi developer ACWA Power with a combined 1 GW solar and 1.3 GWh storage capacity.
Uzbekistan’s cumulative solar capacity stood at 2,275 MW at the end of 2024, up from 475 MW at the end of the year prior, according to figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The country is aiming to deploy 25 GW of solar and wind energy by 2030.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.