Uzbekistan picks winners in 500-MW solar tender

• French renewables company Voltalia SA (EPA: VLTSA), UAE's Masdar and a consortium of GD Power as well as Powerchina have actually been chosen in a tender in Uzbekistan to develop three solar parks in the Central Asian country with a combined capacity of 500 MW.

A site in the western Khorezm province near the border with Turkmenistan has actually been awarded to Voltalia where the French firm intends to build a 123-MW/100-MW AC solar project. Voltalia's proposal is for USD 0.0288 (EUR 0.027) per kWh, the Ministry of Energy and also National Grid of Uzbekistan claimed last week.

The solar ranch will feature bi-facial panels placed on trackers with commissioning arranged to occur in 2024.

Masdar emerged as a winner in the competition for a 250-MW project in the Bukhara region, supplying USD 0.0304 per kWh. The solar plant will be combined with a battery energy storage space system (BESS) with a capacity of 62 MW.

The GD Power-- Powerchina consortium was chosen to build a photovoltaic (PV) park with a capacity of 150 MW in the Namangan area. The business won the bidding with a proposition for USD 0.0482 per kWh.

The auction was launched in July by the Ministry of Energy and National Grid of Uzbekistan to sustain the country's target of establishing 12 GW of solar as well as wind capacity by 2030.