Uzbek media reports said at the end of last week that Uzbek president has returned from a state visit to Saudi Arabia with US$14 billion in promised investments.  Of that, US$12 billion is earmarked to address chronic energy shortages.

During Uzbek president’s state visit to Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia and Saudi companies reportedly signed three major development agreements worth US$12 billion, the implementation of which will be a cardinal step towards a new stage of Uzbek-Saudi energy cooperation.

The agreements include a pledge for Saudi firm ACWA Power to build a 1.5 GW wind farm in Karakalpakstan.  Uzbekistan’s Energy Ministry says it will be the world’s largest and will power 1.65 million homes.  ACWA Power has already begun building two smaller wind farms in the Bukhara region.

Eurasianet says that with rising summer temperatures and drought putting strain on Central Asia’s hydropower networks, Uzbekistan has begun to experience electricity shortages in the hottest months in addition to the traditional blackout season of winter.

As far as Tajikistan is concerned, the wind energy potential of the country, although not well studied, yet according to various estimates it ranges from 30 to 100 billion kWh per year.  Given this data, one can say that wind energy can compete with the country’s hydropower potential.

CABAR.asia notes that judging by information from the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan, there are only 9 wind turbines with a total capacity of 5.1 kilowatts and 2,433 solar generators with a total capacity of only 8.87 kilowatts in the country. 

Many Tajik experts and the Ministry of Energy, however, claim that wind and solar power are expensive resources for generating electricity.  They cite the price of electricity as an example: 1 kWh of electricity produced by hydroelectric plants currently costs 22.66 dirams (2.5 cents), while 1 kWh of wind power, for example, costs about 20 cents, according to countries that use that energy. 

In Tajikistan, alternative energy sources reportedly account for approximately 2% of the total energy balance and are mainly micro and mini-hydro power plants, 95% are large hydropower plants, and 3% are coal-powered thermal power plants.  About 300 small HPPs have been built in the country.  At the same time, there is a potential to build another 600 small HPPs.