Acwa Power secures $174m for Uzbek wind power plants

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Saudi-listed Acwa Power Company and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed $174 million worth of loans to develop the Bash and Dzhankeldy wind power plants, both located in the Bukhara region in Uzbekistan. 

The financing comprises loans amounting to $40.5 million for Bash and $46.5 million for the Dzhankeldy, funded through ADB’s ordinary capital resources, the development bank said in a statement.

ADB will also administer $40.5 million for Bash and $46.5 million for Dzhankeldy from Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (Leap). 

Each power plant consists of 79 wind turbines that will generate 3,235 gigawatt-hours and displace nearly two million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year. 

Together, Bash and Dzhankeldy will be the largest utility-scale wind power development in the Central West Asia region. 

The loans will also fund the construction of 282.5 km 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 decarbonisation and expansion of renewables in the country’s energy mix,” said ADB director general for private sector operations Suzanne Gaboury. 

Bash and Dzhankeldy are greenfield wind power projects, which have a significant demonstrative impact of private sector participation across the region’s energy sector, she added,

ADB has supported approximately 2,500 megawatts of renewable energy in Uzbekistan since 2019 after the country opened up the sector to private sector participants. The total cost of ADB’s latest collaboration with Acwa is approximately $1.35 billion. 

Parallel lenders include the Deutsche Investitions – und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH , European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Opec Fund for International Development, and Proparco. 

Leap is an ADB-managed fund capitalised with a $1.5 billion commitment by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.  

Bash and Dzhankeldy are special-purpose vehicles owned by Acwa Power.