ACWA Power, a developer, owner, and operator of power generation projects, announced the completion of the financial close for the $533 million Tashkent Riverside project in Uzbekistan. The hybrid project includes a 200 MW solar PV project and a 500 MWh battery energy storage system.
Six lenders, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), DEG, Proparco, Standard Chartered, and KfW-IPEX Bank, provided the funding. The total debt from the signings is $386 million, making up more than two-thirds of the project’s total cost.
Nandita Parshad, Managing Director, Sustainable Infrastructure Group at EBRD, said, “We are proud to partner with ACWA Power and co-financiers on the pioneering Tashkent Solar PV and energy storage project in Uzbekistan, the largest of its kind in Central Asia. The project is core to Uzbekistan’s ambition to install 25 GW of renewables by 2030. This project can power 170,000 households and the battery storage capacity is equivalent to 8000 electric vehicles.”
Last year, ACWA Power signed a $123 million financing package to develop the 200 MW Kom Ombo solar project in Egypt. The Kom Ombo project is less than 20 kilometers from Africa’s biggest solar park, the 1,465 MW Benban complex—another ACWA Power development.
Uzbekistan aims to generate 40% of its electricity from renewables by 2030 and is stated to be ACWA Power’s second-largest market in terms of investments. The company currently claims to have a portfolio of 10.1 GW of renewable energy projects in Uzbekistan.
According to Mercom’s Q1 2024 Solar Funding and M&A report, announced debt financing for the solar sector in Q1 2024 totaled $6.2 billion in 22 deals, a 59% increase year-over-year compared to Q1 2023 when $3.9 billion was raised in 17 deals.
Ameresco, a company that develops and operates clean energy assets, recently secured a $100 million second lien debt financing from Nuveen Energy Infrastructure Credit, with Oppenheimer & Co. acting as the Lead Arranger for the transaction.
