Another Uzbek wind farm for Acwa: Saudi renewables giant Acwa Power signed a SAR 18.2 bn (c. USD 4.9 bn) power purchase agreement with the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan (Negu) to develop a new 5 GW wind farm — set to become the largest in Central Asia, it said in a disclosure to Tadawul on Thursday. The 25-year contract for the Aral 5GW wind independent power producer project is under a build, own, operate, and transfer model.

What we don’t know: Information about the construction timeline and financing was not made public.

Beating its own record: The Aral project — which is the 15th project by Acwa Power in Uzbekistan — beats a planned 1.5 GW wind energy farm by Acwa Power that it said last year would be the largest in Central Asia. It is the second agreement Acwa Power signs with Negu for a wind plant in nearly a month after it signed a SAR 985 mn power purchase agreement to develop a 200 MW wind farm known as Nukus 2 as well as a battery energy storage system. This brings Acwa Power’s total investments to Uzbekistan at USD 13.9 bn, with the Central Asian country becoming its second largest after Saudi.

BACKGROUND- Acwa has been busy in Uzbekistan: Acwa signed three powerpurchase agreements totaling USD 2.5 bn with Negu and the country’s Investment, Industry, and Trade Ministry for 1.4 GW worth of solar projects and three battery story facilities with capacity of 1.5 GWh last year. It also broke ground on a pilot green hydrogen production project in the Tashkent region last November.

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