Acwa Power set to build Central Asia’s largest wind farm

Acwa Power inches closer to another Uzbek wind farm: 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 largestin Central Asia, it said in a disclosure to Tadawul. 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: Last year, 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. It is also set to develop a green hydrogen plant and a green ammonia pilot project in Uzbekistan, the first of their kind in the Central Asian country.

IN CONTEXT- Officials in 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.

DEBT WATCH-

Acwa signed two debt financing agreements worth SAR 5.7 bn (c. USD 1.5 bn) each for two of its 1.8 GW combined cycle power plants at home— Taiba 1 and Qassim 1, according to two separate disclosures to Tadawul (here and here).

Who’s on board? The senior debt was funded by a mix of local and international lenders, including Riyad Bank, SNB, Alinma Bank, Saudi Investment Bank, SAB, Standard Chartered and Bank of China. Acwa Power holds a 40% stake in each project. A consortium led by the Saudi Electricity Company signed power purchase agreements worth SAR 14.6 bn for the two power stations.