ACWA Power completes $533m financing for Tashkent energy project

ACWA Power announced the financial close for the $533m Tashkent Riverside project in Uzbekistan.

The project includes a 200MW solar plant and Central Asia’s largest battery energy storage system (BESS).

The development will feature a 500MWh BESS to stabilise the Uzbek grid.

Uzbekistan is ACWA Power’s second-largest market in terms of investments.

ACWA Power’s current portfolio in Uzbekistan includes 11.6GW of power, of which 10.1GW is renewable, and the country’s first green hydrogen project with a capacity of 3,000 tonnes per year.

Financing documents were signed with six lenders, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), DEG, Proparco, Standard Chartered, and KfW-IPEX Bank.

The total debt from these signings is $386m, covering over two-thirds of the project’s cost.

Project is key to Uzbekistan’s goal of installing 25GW of renewables by 2030

Marco Arcelli, CEO of ACWA Power, stated, “In a world that seeks greater private capital participation in emerging markets for growth and decarbonisation, Uzbekistan exemplifies this vision. The Tashkent Riverside project reflects strong trust in ACWA Power as a private sector partner and a global leader in renewables and energy storage.”

Nandita Parshad, MD of the Sustainable Infrastructure Group at EBRD, said, “This project is key to Uzbekistan’s goal of installing 25GW of renewables by 2030, and it can power 170,000 households with battery storage capacity equivalent to 8,000 electric vehicles.”

The project supports Uzbekistan’s ambitious goals to transition to a low-carbon economy and diversify its energy sources.

By 2030, Uzbekistan aims to generate 40 per cent of its electricity from renewables. The BESS will mitigate the effects of intermittency in renewable energy sources, ensuring a reliable electricity supply to meet the growing demand in Uzbekistan.

More recently, ACWA Power signed a $4.85bn power purchase agreement (PPA) with the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan for Central Asia’s largest wind farm, the Aral 5GW Wind Independent Power Producer (IPP) project in the Karakalpakstan region.

Acwa Power in Saudi

In other news, ACWA Power partnered with Badeel and Saudi Aramco Power Company, signing PPAs with the Saudi Power Procurement Company for three significant solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in Saudi Arabia.

These projects are part of a larger development initiative by the companies, which includes several other projects with a total capacity of 13,600MW, involving over $9bn in investment from the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and its partners.

The new solar PV facilities, valued at SAR12.3bn ($3.3bn), are expected to add 5,500MW of renewable energy to the national grid by the first half of 2027.

Read: ACWA Power, Badeel, SAPCO sign PPAs for major solar projects