First solar power plant in Uzbekistan to appear in 2019
By Aynur Jafarova
The first solar power plant in Uzbekistan with a capacity of 100 megawatt will be constructed no earlier than 2019, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on November 23 during the sixth Asia Solar Energy Forum.
"This project will take five years and is supposed to be completed in March 2019," the ADB said.
Speaking at the sixth Asia Solar Energy Forum which was held in Uzbek capital Tashkent on November 20-23, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said that solar energy may and should be one of the locomotives for overcoming the energy crisis.
According to Karimov, annually the world economy's demand for energy increases along with the growing difficulties in the development of new oil and gas resources, and using and burning of fossil fuels in colossal proportions causes a significant harm to the environment and threatens the sustainability of future development at the global level.
Karimov went on to say that growth of investment in the projects on development of solar energy as an effective and perspective source of renewable energy is important for preventing the above mentioned problems.
The solar energy forum is an international platform for knowledge sharing that tracks the development of solar energy projects, discusses new proposals and stimulation mechanisms on implementation of solar energy.
The forum brought together the key political figures, relevant experts and producers of smart grid, developers and suppliers of solar energy projects, industrial associations and scientific institutions in order to be concentrated on resolving the major issues related to the spread of solar energy projects in the Asian-Pacific region.
According to local experts, with the current tendencies and volumes of resource consumption, the natural gas and coal reserves in Uzbekistan will last only for the next 20-30 years, while oil reserves are almost depleted.
The potential of renewable energy sources in Uzbekistan amounts to about 51 billion tons of oil equivalent.
The country's hydropower potential is 9.2 million tons of oil equivalents, while the potential of solar energy with 300 sunny days per year is 50.973 billion tons, wind potential 2.2 million tons and geothermal waters 0.2 million tons of oil equivalents.
Ninety-seven percent of primary fuel and energy resources of the country are made up by oil and gas, while 2.3 percent - by coal and the remaining 0.7 percent by hydropower, today. The share of renewable energy sources is estimated at below one percent.
The existing technologies allow generating the energy equivalent of 179 million tons of oil, which is triple the current annual production with the use of primary energy resources. They will also prevent emissions in the amount of 447 million tons of carbon dioxide, sulfur compounds, nitrogen oxide and other substances.
In early 2013 Uzbekistan developed a set of measures for development of alternative sources of energy. The country established the International Institute for Solar Energy jointly with ADB in September 2013.
The institute is aimed to implement high-tech developments in the field of industrial application of solar energy, to conduct applied researches, related to the use of solar energy in various sectors of economy and to coordinate the development of documentation for major projects in the field of solar energy.