ACWA Power inks financing deals for $533m Uzbekistan project

Debt accounts for two-thirds of the total cost.

Saudi-based ACWA Power has inked financing agreements for its $533m Tashkent Riverside project in Uzbekistan.

In a statement, the company said the facility will have a 200-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) plant and a 500 megawatt-hours battery energy storage system (BESS), the largest in Central Asia that will help stabilise the Uzbek grid.

Six lenders signed the financing agreement, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Islamic Development Bank, DEG, Proparco, Standard Chartered, and KfW-IPEX Bank.

The total borrowings amounted to $386m, which is more than two-thirds of the total cost of the project.

Nandita Parshad, managing director, the sustainable infrastructure group at EBRD, said the project can power 170,000 households and the battery storage capacity is equivalent to 8,000 electric vehicles.

She also said this will help Uzbekistan's transition to a low-carbon economy as well as diversify its energy sources.

The Central Asian country aims to install 25 gigawatts (GW) of renewables and generate 40% of its electricity from renewables by 2030. 

Uzbekistan is ACWA Power’s second-largest market in terms of investments. The company currently has a portfolio of 11.6GW of power in the said country, of which 10.1GW is renewable.