Uzbekistan to spend $700 million on region's first solar plants

Uzbekistan launched projects worth $700 million for three solar power plants that will pioneer use of the technology in Central Asia, state power utility Uzbekenergo said on Monday. A producer of crude oil and natural gas, Uzbekistan relies on thermal plants for up to 90 percent of its electricity. The 300 megawatts of clean energy from the solar plants, which are due for completion by 2020, will make up a tiny fraction of the country's total energy capacity of around 10 gigawatts - though with 320 days of sunshine per year Uzbekistan has great potential to develop solar energy, Uzbekenergo said.
A tender for the first, $275 million, plant, in the Samarkand region, was announced in 2014 and is expected to be awarded later this year, Uzbekenergo said, giving no details. The other two have been earmarked for the Namangan and Surkhondaryo regions at a combined cost of $420 million. All three will have capacity of 100 MW each and are scheduled for completion by 2020.