The European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU climate bank, together with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and PROPARCO, a subsidiary of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), will invest €87.4m in construction of Total Eren`s 100 MW photovoltaic solar plant near the ancient city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan.
The EIB will provide a €43.7 million loan while EBRD and PROPARCO will provide approximately €21.8 million each to the project developer Tutly Solar LLC. The company is fully owned by Total Eren, a leading French independent renewable energy producer.
The Tutly Solar Plant is one of the first private-sector renewable energy projects in Uzbekistan. Its development will support Uzbekistan’s plans to develop 8 GW of solar and wind capacity in the country by 2030.
Teresa Czerwińska, Vice-President at EIB, Responsible for operations in Uzbekistan, said: “With Climate Action at the heart of the EIB investment activities, we are proud to support development of Tutly solar plant in Uzbekistan. The plant will make an important contribution to both country’s sustainable economic and social development, and allow Uzbekistan to reinforce the global fight against the climate change. This makes Tutly an investment in local economic development and the future of our planet. I am grateful to our partners from the European Union, the EBRD and Total Eren for the far-sighted partnership for a safe and prosperous future of Uzbekistan, Central Asia and the world.”
Nandita Parshad, the EBRD Managing Director, Sustainable Infrastructure Group, commented: “We are very proud to co-finance this landmark project conceived by Total Eren. It is contributing to Uzbekistan’s long-term decarbonisation strategy, which is being developed jointly with the EBRD and is designed to achieve carbon neutrality of the power sector by 2050, as well as to align development of the country’s power sector with commitments under the Paris Agreement.”
Anne Gautier, Head of PROPARCO’s Power and Digital Division for this region said: “PROPARCO is pleased to contribute to financing the Tutly solar power plant, a unique project developed by Total Eren and our first project in the renewable energy sector of Uzbekistan. This financing is fully in line with AFD Group’s ‘100 per cent Paris Agreement’ commitment.”
Laurence Juin, EVP and CFO of Total Eren, said: “We are pleased to have successfully finalised the financing of our first solar project in Uzbekistan, and I would like to thank the Uzbek authorities and our lenders, the EIB, the EBRD and Proparco, for their support, as well as our teams in Tashkent and Paris for their hard work. Total Eren is proud to be one of the first independent power producers to develop, build, and finance a solar project in Uzbekistan to supply the population with low-carbon electricity and help reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. We are eager to commission the Tutly solar farm and to develop other renewable energy projects in Uzbekistan and in the region.”
Strengthening global climate action
The investment in Tutly solar power plant will help diversify the energy mix in Uzbekistan, currently dominated by fossil fuel-fired power stations. It will also increase generation capacity and the reliability of supply addressing the growing demand for electricity in the country.
Once implemented, the project will help reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 160,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The power plant will generate an additional 270 GWh of electricity for thousands of inhabitants of Uzbekistan, Central Asia’s most populated country, improving living and doing business conditions in the country.
The electric power produced by Tutly Solar will be sold to the Uzbek national power operator, National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan, through a 25-year power-purchasing agreement.
The project will contribute to priorities identified in the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; and climate action.