TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, December 2. PowerChina construction company and Saudi Arabian ACWA Power have started construction of a plant for the production of green hydrogen in Uzbekistan’s region of Chirchik, Trend reports.
According to PowerChina data, the facility is expected to create 500,000 tons of ammonia fertilizer per year, replacing 33 million cubic meters of natural gas, as well as 3,000 tons of green hydrogen annually through water electrolysis. It will be powered by wind energy provided by a nearby wind farm.
Meanwhile, in 2021, the Uzbek Ministry of Energy, ACWA Power, and US Air Products struck a deal to produce hydrogen energy in Uzbekistan. The parties reached another agreement on the industrial production of green hydrogen in August 2022.
ACWA Power and Uzbekistan's Uzkimesanoat chemical firm inked the final agreement in May 2023 at the EBRD Business Forum in Samarkand.
As per the document, the project will be managed by a joint venture, ACWA-UKS GH2, with a share of ACWA at 80 percent and Uzkimesanoat at 20 percent. The project's costs are tentatively estimated at $88 million.
Prior to that, Uzbekistan and PowerChina signed an agreement on the construction of a 400 MW photovoltaic power plant in New Andijan. Work on the project began on September 13, and the first energy is planned to be supplied to the grid in April of 2024.