Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy has published a list of 11 bids that were admitted in the final phase of a solar tender that was launched last September. The procurement exercise involved three solar projects totaling 500 MW in the Namangan, Bukhara and Khorezm regions.

The final list includes Chinese solar developer Jinko Power, UAE-based Masdar, Saudi Arabian utility ACWA Power, Turkey's Alarko Holding AS, Egypt's Elsewedy Electric, and a consortium led by PowerChina. Other bidders include Qatar-based Nebras Power, a consortium led by India's ReNew Power, Spanish developer Solarpack, French developer Voltalia, and Chinese inverter maker TBEA.

“The winning developers are expected to design, finance, operate, maintain, and transfer the solar PV plants,” the ministry said in a statement. “For Bukhara, site integration of the battery energy storage system has been added into the project scope.”

The procurement exercise is the first of two solar tenders for 900 MW that Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy announced in August 2021. The country aims to deploy 8 GW of solar by 2030. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the country had only installed 104 MW of solar by the end of 2021.