Uzbekistan launches rebate program for rooftop PV

Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy has introduced provisions to support rooftop PV, solar heaters and energy-efficient gas burners.

 

The program will grant homeowners a 30% rebate of the initial cost of buying and deploying a PV system up to UZS3 million ($318). For solar heaters and gas burners, the maximum grants will be UZS1.5 million UZS200,000, respectively.

 

The new regime will also grant compensation to rooftop system buyers to cover the interest cost of loans taken from commercial banks to purchase arrays.

 

The rules exempt businesses and homeowners from paying property tax on installations and also waive land tax for systems with a generation capacity no larger than 100 kW for ten years after commissioning. For off-grid projects, exemption from land tax will be granted for three years.

 

 

The program is part of the government’s plan to ensure a quarter of the electricity generated comes from renewables by 2030. Uzbekistan wants to develop large scale solar plants with a combined capacity of 1 GW with the support of the International Finance Corporation, the private finance arm of the World Bank Group.

 

The nation currently has only a 100 MW solar project under development, in the Navoi region. That facility was tendered by state-owned energy company Uzbekenergo JSC in February. Canadian solar developer SkyPower Global is planning 1 GW of large scale PV plant capacity in the regions of Tashkent, Samarkand, Navoi, Jizzakh, Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya.

 

According to the latest statistics published by the International Renewable Energy Agency, Uzbekistan had installed PV capacity of only 4 MW at the end of last year.