Masdar wins solar tender in Uzbekistan with bid of USD 26.79/MWh

Solar power system. Author: Mountain/ \Ash. License: Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic.

October 7 (Renewables Now) - Uzbekistan’s energy ministry announced on Friday that Masdar Clean Energy of the UAE has won a tender for the construction of a 100-MW solar park with a bid of USD 0.02679 (EUR 0.0244) per kWh.

Masdar has outbid four other participants in the tender, details about which are available in the following table.

Name	Tariff per kWh (in USD)
Masdar Clean Energy	0.02679
Acwa Power	0.0298
TBEA Xinjiang Sunoasis Co Ltd	0.03586
Jinko Power and Aljoimah Energy & Water Consortium	0.03702
Total Eren	0.04273

Masdar will have 12 months to complete the project in southwestern Uzbekistan's Navoiy region, according to the announcement.

The tender was launched in early 2019 with the assistance of the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The request for pre-qualification issued on February 1 by state-owned utility Uzbekenergo JSC attracted 23 proposals. Of those, 11 parties proceeded to the next round.

The IFC said on Friday that Masdar's bid is "one of the lowest tariffs seen in emerging markets."

“The project is part of an effort by the Government of Uzbekistan to develop up to 5 GW of solar power by 2030 to diversify the country’s energy mix,” said Deputy Minister Vafaev.

It was also announced on Friday that the government will soon kick off another tender for a further 400 MW of solar power and then one more for 500 MW.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.910)

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