Uzbekistan's Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade (MIFT) has signed up Total Eren to develop a 100 MW (AC) solar power project through a public private partnership (PPP). The company will construct the project in Uzbekistan's Samarkand region with an investment of €150 million ($166 million).
MIFT said it would be the country's first commercial project in alternative energy and even for Total Eren this marks the French company's entry into the renewable energy market of Uzbekistan.
A subsidiary of France's Eren Group, Total Eren will design, finance, construct and operate the plant; construction will start in Q1/2020. Commissioning is scheduled for a year later in Q1/2021. The French company entered into a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the government along with a government support agreement
A memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Uzbek government and Total Eren in October 2018.
The Central Asian nation became the first non-African country to join the International Finance Corporation (IFC) managed World Bank Group's Scaling Solar program and launched a proposal round for a 100 MW solar PV tender for the project to be set up in Navoi region (see Uzbekistan Joins Scaling Solar Initiative).
On its LinkedIn profile, Total Eren announced commissioning of its third solar power plant in Brazil, the 90 MW Dracena Solar Project in Sao Paulo region, taking its cumulative installed capacity in the country to 140 MW.