Masdar wins a tender for construction of solar power plant in Kashkadarya

The Ministry of Energy has announced the results of a tender for the construction of a 300 MW photoelectric power plant in the Guzar district, Kashkadarya region.

The tender started in early 2022, as part of a joint program with the ADB for the construction of solar power plants. In addition to the FES, the investor will have to create an energy storage system that provides 75 MW of power per hour.

Eight applicants from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China, India, as well as Singapore and Russia were shortlisted. Of these, two companies submitted commercial offers in the second stage of the tender, which started in December.

The provisional winner was Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar). The UAE company offered 3 cents per 1 kWh of electricity produced, as well as $6.33 per 1 MWh of storage battery system capacity.

Reserve winner - Saudi ACWA Power estimated 1 kWh of energy at 3.0518 cents. According to its version, the cost of the battery capacity was $24,425 per 1 MWh.

The total cost of the project according to Masdar will be $249.49 million. ACWA estimated it at 30.7% more expensive - at $ 326.08 million. 

The tender documents and results are to be considered and approved by the Tender Commission with the participation of ADB consultants. The Ministry of Energy expects this to happen in the coming days.

In 2021, Masdar launched Uzbekistan's first commercial photovoltaic power plant in the Navoi region. Now the company is working on several more alternative energy projects.

Among them are a 500 MW wind power plant in Zarafshan, a small 40 kW solar power plant in the Tashkent region, three solar power plants with a total capacity of 897 MW in the Jizzakh, Samarkand and Surkhandarya regions. In December, the company was selected for the construction of a 250 MW solar power plant in the Bukhara region.

In addition, Masdar, at a recent EBRD forum in Samarkand, formalized agreements on the creation of new power plant projects worth $2.6 billion.