Saudi Arabia’s ace renewable energy developer ACWA Power has received $174 million worth of loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to develop the Bash wind power and Dzhankeldy wind power plants – both located in the Bukhara region in Uzbekistan.
As per ABD, the ACWA Power financing comprises loans amounting to $40.5 million for Bash and $46.5 million for the Dzhankeldy funded through ordinary capital resources of the bank.
ADB will also administer $40.5 million for Bash and $46.5 million for Dzhankeldy from the Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP), administered by ADB.
As per the RE developer, each power plant consists of 79 wind turbines, for a total of 158 turbines that will generate 3,235 GWh and displace nearly 2 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year. Together, Bash and Dzhankeldy projects of the firm will be the largest utility-scale wind power development in the Central West Asia region.
The loans will also help fund ACWA Power for the construction of 282.5 kilometers of 500-kilovolt, single-circuit overhead transmission to connect to the power grid.
“Uzbekistan is one of the fastest-growing economies in Central Asia, and with it comes a growing demand for energy. This brings a unique opportunity to invest in decarbonization and expansion of renewables in the country’s energy mix,” said ADB Director General for Private Sector Operations Suzanne Gaboury.
ADB said that it has supported approximately 2,500 MW of renewable energy in Uzbekistan since 2019, after the country opened up the sector to private sector participants. Also, the total cost of ADB’s latest collaboration with ACWA Power is approximately $1.35 billion.
Parallel lenders include the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (DEG), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, OPEC Fund for International Development, and Proparco.
Bash and Dzhankeldy are special-purpose vehicles owned by ACWA Power, a regional leader in renewable energy. ACWA Power has a present portfolio capacity of about 43.4 GW of power and 6.4 million cubic meters per day of desalinated water.
In March, 2023, ACWA Power inked three PPAs and investment agreements with Joint-Stock Company (JSC) National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (NEGU) and Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan to develop three solar PV projects and three Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). The total investment promised was $7.5 billion for all these projects.
