Navoi Scaling Solar Independent Power Producer Project

2021 - 2023

The proposed project will be the country’s first competitively selected private investment in power generation, first grid-scale renewable energy project, and first World Bank guarantee operation in Uzbekistan, with strong demonstration effects in Central Asia and beyond. The proposed Navoi Scaling Solar IPP Project supports the Government's policy objectives and reforms in the energy sector. These include expanding generation capacity through renewables, improving security of supply from domestic energy resources and promoting private sector participation to strengthen the energy sector sustainability, which is crucial for economic recovery and growth and job creation. Support under this WBG initiative is expected to accelerate the Uzbekistan energy sector development and improve its efficiency by deploying new business and financing schemes in the form of PPPs/IPPs. The Navoi Scaling Solar IPP will also support the Government’s commitments on climate change and its Nationally Determined Contribution implementation, particularly through the development of renewable energy and avoidance of GHG emissions. The proposed project’s implementation and success will further accelerate the deployment of new renewable generation capacities, and hence the clean energy transition to stimulate economic recovery and development of appropriate infrastructure, when the COVID-19 crisis eases. The proposed project will involve the first-time deployment of an IFC financing in the energy sector and the IBRD’s risk mitigation product in Uzbekistan. The project will directly contribute to the Maximizing Finance for Development (MFD) /Cascade Approach goals and bring additional climate co-benefits from the development of scalable clean energy investment program.

Green Central Asia: Transboundary dialogue on climate, environment and security in Central Asia and Afghanistan

2021 - 2024

The Green Central Asia Regional Programme aims at improving access to information and risk analyses in order to enable participating countries to assess the impact of climate change more accurately and to take preventive measures. At the same time, dialogue fora and workshops are meant to increase states´ resilience and decision-makers’ ability to adequately address security hazards resulting from climate change at national and regional level. It promotes conflict prevention and trans-boundary cooperation. Support is also provided to develop the capacity of partner institutions in the field of environmental management.

Hydro4u- Sustainable small-scale hydropower in Central Asia

2021 - 2026

Hydro4U is a project funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Under the coordination of Technical University of Munich, 13 partners from 8 countries are collaborating to boost sustainable small-scale hydropower in Central Asia. Eco-friendly hydropower solutions will be implemented in two demonstration plants in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Regional programme on integrative and climate sensitive land use in Central Asia II (ILUCA II)

2021 - 2026

Follow-up phase of Regional programme for sustainable and climate sensitive land use for economic development in Central Asia

Promoting women’s economic empowerment in the energy sector in Central Asia

2021 - 2028

The OSCE project on promoting women’s economic empowerment in the energy sector aims to address this imbalance and help OSCE participating States in Central Asia advance both their energy sustainability and gender-equality goals, tapping into the job creation potential of the energy transition.

Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program for Aral Sea Basin Additional Financing (CAMP4ASB AF)

2021 - 2025

Scaling up the Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program for Aral Sea Basin (CAMP4ASB) by providing support to adaptation activities in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Providing grants to the most vulnerable communities for climate resilient measures in priority areas, including to the poorest populations residing in risk-prone areas, and marginalized groups such as women.

Orientation of infrastructure investments towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda in Central and Southeast Asia (SIPA)

2021 - 2026

The project supports partner countries in prioritizing infrastructure projects that are compatible with long-term, low-emission and resilient development goals.

Strengthening the World Biodiversity Council IPBES by capacity building in the EECCA region

2021 - 2024

The Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) provides assessments on the global status of biodiversity and presents options for its conservation and sustainable use. The project strengthened the uptake of IPBES findings into decisions in environmental and conservation policy in the partner countries.

Enhancing the conservation of flagship migratory mammal species of Central Asia through climate-informed management and decision making

2021 - 2025

Migratory species in Central Asia are highly vulnerable to climate change. As a result of changing migration patterns, protected areas are rendered ineffective. Changes in the use of pastures (extension of grazing periods and shifting grazing areas to higher elevations) are ex-pected to lead to increased human-wildlife conflicts. In order to increase the resilience of people and wildlife in Central Asia to climate change ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) measures and climate change-informed wildlife management will be tested in pilot sites.

Electricity Sector Transformation and Resilient Transmission

2021 - 2028

The proposed Project would have the following four components: (i) Digitalization of the electricity transmission sector; (ii) Power grid strengthening and renewable energy integration; (iii) NEGU institutional development and project implementation support; and (iv) Electricity market development.COMPONENT 1: Digitalization of the electricity transmission sector. The proposed Project will take advantage of the modern digital technologies to support the enhanced monitoring, automation and control of the power system in Uzbekistan. Digital technologies to be deployed under the proposed Project would comprise of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Energy Management System (EMS) and substation Remote Terminal Units (RTUs). This component will also support an upgrade of NEGU’s digital telecommunication network to enable those systems to be fully functional.COMPONENT 2: Power grid strengthening and renewable energy integration. The proposed investments under the Component 2 will support: (a) modernization of 22 priority transmission substations that were commissioned in 1940/1950s; and (b) construction of a new greenfield substation Koltsevaya 500 kV as well as associated transmission lines to meet increasing demand and improve the reliability of electricity supply for residential, industrial, commercial and public consumers in the Central part of Uzbekistan, where the transmission networks are currently overloaded. COMPONENT 3: NEGU institutional development and project implementation support. This component will support developing and improving the institutional capacity, financial substantiality and technical capabilities of NEGU to ensure it can effectively carry out its functions of reliable operation of the transmission system and electricity market in Uzbekistan. The component will include the following sub-components: (i) Modernization of NEGU business process; (ii) NEGU financial sustainability and preparatory work to access commercial financing; (iii) NEGU institutional capacity building and project implementation support; and (iv) Technical supervision consultancy.COMPONENT 4: Electricity market development. This component will provide technical assistance for the design and implementation of the electricity sector’s transition plan toward the establishment of a wholesale electricity market, including the preparation of secondary legislation, market rules, institutional capacity building, and design and implementation of systems required for market operation and management

Inclusive and Climate Investments finance in the Livestock sector of Uzbekistan

2021 - 2025

The project aims at promoting the sustainable and climate compliant development of the Uzbek livestock sector by supporting selected investments through credit, additional financial products and Technical Assistance to stakeholders and final beneficiaries. The instruments are a credit line to the Republic of Uzbekistan (represented by Ministry of Finance, MoF) on-lent to 4 participating financial institutions (PFI) for provision of Climate smart investment and additional support targeted at improving the access to investments and credit for smallholders with the support of national guarantees as collateral and interest subsidies from the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES).

Sustainable Rural Development project

2021 -

Sustainable Rural Development project (SRDP) aims to enhance the living standards of the rural residents in Uzbekistan by providing access to quality infrastructure and service delivery. Project will significantly improve the living standards of the rural communities in the lagging villages in Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, Bukhara and Navoiy regions while expressing his desire for further scale up of the program in other regions of the country.

Solar IPP

2021 -

100 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant located in Samarkand region promoted by Total Eren.

Horezm Water Project

2021 -

The provision of a sovereign loan of up to US$ 60 million (€50 million) to the Republic of Uzbekistan to be on-lent and/or granted to the water utility Limited Liability Company Xorazm Suv Ta'minoti, formerly known as the State Unitary Enterprise Horezm Suvokova to finance the Company's Priority Investment Programme (PIP). The PIP includes such investments in water and wastewater infrastructure of Khoresmoblast as the construction of new water intakes and renewal of pumping stations, water and wastewater treatment facilities, and the installation of household and bulk meters. These components are aimed at improving water quality, access to safe drinking water and wastewater treatment services.

Sirdarya 1,500MW CCGT Power Project

2021 -

The Project involves the design, engineering, construction, operation, maintenance, and transfer of a 1,500MW greenfield combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant and associated infrastructure to be implemented as an Independent Power Producer (IPP) facility. The Project is being developed by ACWA Power, through a Project Company, which has entered into a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement with JSC National Electric Networks of Uzbekistan (NENU) in March 2020.