A state-owned power company in Uzbekistan has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Voltalia for a large-scale clean energy project combining solar PV, wind and battery storage.
JSC Uzenergosotish signed the agreement with Voltalia at a ceremony which took place in France during an official visit by Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the Paris-headquartered renewable energy power producer and services provider said yesterday (11 March).
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The deal is for the output of Voltalia’s Artemisya solar-wind-battery hybrid project in the Bukhara region in the southwestern part of the country. Close to the border with Turkmenistan, Bukhara’s capital city of the same name was historically important as a trading post on the Silk Road through Asia.
Artemisya will combine 126MW of solar PV generation with 300MW of wind alongside battery energy storage system (BESS) equipment with 100MW output and 200MWh capacity.
Construction of the solar and storage is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2026, with construction of the wind element to follow from Q3 of next year.
The PPA covers a 25-year term for solar and energy storage and 15 years for wind generation. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. JSC Uzenergosotish is Uzbekistan’s sole electricity seller and distributor, created in 2023.
Voltalia seals Uzbekistan government deal for 1GWh standalone storage project
The event was attended by representatives of the Central Asian country’s Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment.
In addition to the Artemisya PPA, Voltalia has signed an agreement to establish terms and conditions for Turan Storage, a 500MW/1,000MWh standalone BESS project in co-development with the two government ministries. The power producer also agreed to terms of reference for a 500kW agrivoltaics pilot project.
The three new agreements follow several cooperation initiatives and frameworks made between Voltalia and Uzbekistan state entities and government over the past three years or so.
Voltalia entered the country’s market with impetus from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), one of the power producer’s main shareholders.
One such agreement was a framework for the Artemisya hybrid complex Voltalia signed with the two ministries in November 2023 for the project’s development, financing, construction and maintenance.
At that time, the hybrid was named Shurkul and was tentatively planned for a different region in central Uzbekistan. The 2023 framework was signed during a visit by French president Emmanual Macron.
It updated an original co-development agreement between the three parties signed a year earlier and overseen by the EBRD, when the project’s planned output was 200MW each of solar and wind, with 60MW/240MWh BESS capacity.
Voltalia is also building Sarimay, a 126MW solar PV plant in the Uzbek Khorezm region, to which 50MW/100MWh of battery storage will be added. A long-term PPA for that project was awarded to the French company through a competitive solicitation and is being supported by EBRD and European Union (EU) funding.
Sarimay is being built on a multi-technology complex to which Voltalia also plans to add wind generation.
With Uzbekistan pursuing a national target of 8GW renewable energy capacity by 2026, and 12GW by 2030, the country will require energy storage to facilitate its integration.
Uzbekistan’s government has renewable energy agreements with other developers and power producers, including the UAE’s Masdar and ACWA Power from Saudi Arabia.
Uzbekistan’s government has renewable energy agreements in place with other developers and power producers, including the UAE’s Masdar and ACWA Power from Saudi Arabia.
