Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 21
By Fakhri Vakilov-Trend:
As a transaction adviser, International Financial Corporation (IFC) has also helped Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Energy to design and tender a PPP to develop a solar plant in the Navoi region, Wiebke Schloemer, IFC Regional Director, Europe and Central Asia, told Trend in an interview.
“As a result, Uzbekistan set a precedent last week with the announcement of the winning bidder for the country’s first ever competitively tendered solar power PPP. Masdar Clean Energy of United Arab Emirates was awarded the project with a bid to supply solar power at just 2.7 US cents per kilowatt hour, one of the lowest tariffs seen in emerging markets,” she added.
Schloemer noted that PPP, tendered under the World Bank Group’s Scaling Solar program, will soon add 100 megawatts of clean, renewable energy to the country’s energy mix.
“We congratulate Uzbekistan on this important milestone as it is expected to lead to many more PPP projects, opening new markets for private investment and making progress towards the country’s goal to increase its use of renewable energy. The robust investor interest [11 pre-qualified bidders, five submitted bids] is groundbreaking in a country where the energy sector was traditionally state-run,” the regional director stated.
Schloemer also noted with gratefulness the contribution of the donor partners in the project - the Austrian Ministry of Finance, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), and the government of the Netherlands.
She expressed her delight that, given the successful outcome of the first tender, the government of Uzbekistan will soon be launching another tender for an additional PPP for 400 megawatts of solar power, followed by one more PPP for 500 megawatts.
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