Another Uzbek wind farm for Acwa: Saudi renewables giant Acwa Power signed a SAR 985 mn (c. USD 262.7 mn) power purchase agreement with the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (NEGU) for the development of the 200 MW Nukus 2 wind farm along with an accompanying battery energy storage system (BESS) facility, the company said in a disclosure to Tadawul. A timeline on the project’s targeted launch date was not provided.

What we know: Acwa will build the plant under a build, own, operate, and transfer model under a 25-year contract between the two sides. The project is still in the development stage and its total investment ticket may change when it reaches financial close, according to Acwa Power The financial impact of the project is expected to materialize after the first half of 2026, it added.

Not Acwa’s first Nukus: The private utility developer signed financing agreements worth USD 120 mn in May for the 100 MW Karatau wind farm, formerly referred to as the Nukus wind project. Under the agreements, NEGU will be the exclusive buyer of electricity generated by the wind farm over a 25-year period. Its commercial operation date has been set at the first quarter of 2025, according to its project profile. This comes more than a year after Acwa Power broke ground on the project, which was the first renewable energy project governed by Uzbekistan’s new private public partnership (PPP) law.

REMEMBER- Acwa has a considerable foothold in the country: Acwa Power has poured some USD 7.5 bn into renewable energy projects in Uzbekistan to date. The projects are set to produce some 25 GW of renewable energy by 2030, slashing emissions by 3 mn tons. It signed three power purchase agreements totaling USD 2.5 bn last year with the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan and the country’s Investment, Industry, and Trade Ministry for 1.4 GW worth of solar projects and three BESS units totalling a capacity of 1.5 GWh. It also signed power purchase and investment agreements last year with NEGU for a 1.5 GW wind energy farm — slated to be Central Asia’s largest.

Other regional players are tapping into Uzbekistani renewables: UAE renewables developer Masdar connected four of its solar and wind power farms totalling 1.4 GW to Uzbekistan’s electricity grid in January. Masdar will deliver the clean power to Uzbekistan’s power grid from its 500 MW Zarafshan wind farm and from three solar projects in the Jizzakh, Samarkand, and Sherabad regions of the country with a combined capacity of 900 MW. The renewables firm will develop an additional 2 GW of wind energy projects, as well as expand its storage capacity to 1.15 GWh spread across five existing Masdar projects in the country. The agreement brings Masdar’s total Uzbekistan investments to approximately USD 4 bn.

More to come by the Saudis? Saudi and Uzbekistan signed agreements worth USD 12 bn in November that will see the kingdom invest in everything from energy, agriculture, chemistry and IT to pharma and infrastructure. The announcement was made as officials broke ground on a pilot green hydrogen production project implemented by Acwa Power in the Tashkent region.

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