Uzbekistan releases EoI for 400 MW of solar projects

AKIPRESS.COM - Uzbekistan has issued a request for Expressions of Interest (EoI) as part of a tender seeking to award 400 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity, the Renewables Now reported.
The EoI was published on the Ministry of Energy's website on Thursday. The competition aims to pre-qualify private sector developers or consortia that will be tasked with the development, financing, construction, ownership and operation of two solar parks. Each of those projects will have a capacity of 200 MW.
Interested parties will be able to apply until March 2021. Winners will be selected after submitting binding technical and financial proposals and will be awarded a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA). The first solar farm is to be installed in the Kattakurgan district of Uzbekistan's Samarkand region, while the second one is planned for the Gallaorol district, in the Jizzakh region.
The two projects are part of a bigger initiative for the deployment of as much as 900 MW of solar PV capacity through public-private partnerships (PPPs). The World Bank's International Finance Corp (IFC) is assisting the Uzbek government in this programme and is helping with the tender structuring.
Earlier in February, the country issued an EoI for a 200-MW solar project in Sherabad district, Surkhandarya province. Under its broad energy strategy, Uzbekistan targets to lift the share of its installed renewables capacity with up to 5 GW in the next 10 years.