Saudi Arabia’s ACWA power will invest up to $1.1bn building a wind farm as large as 1GW in Uzbekistan under an agreement with the government of the Central Asian nation.
The wind project, between 500MW and 1GW in scale, is part of a wider strategic partnership with Uzbekistan that will also see ACWA build and operate a 1.5GW combined-cycle gas plant there.
If realised the agreement would propel fossil-reliant Uzbekistan from nowhere into the wind power big league – the nation only got its first turbine in 2017, a 750kW machine from China’s Goldwind. A 1GW development would be by far the biggest in the region and rival the largest onshore wind projects in Europe.
ACWA gave no further details or timings for the wind project, which marks further expansion for the Saudi group in Central Asia. Earlier this year it signed a deal to build a 240MW wind farm in Azerbaijan.
Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power, said: “ACWA Power is on a dynamic growth path and our priority has been to expand and extend our geographic footprint in Central Asia. The market has an economically vibrant landscape that favours private investment and power sector fortification and this is where we can make a great contribution.”
