The Saudis just installed the largest wind turbine in Central Asia

A Saudi Arabian company has installed the largest wind turbine in Central Asia, in the Bukhara region of Uzbekistan.

The 6.5 megawatt (MW) wind turbine was made by Chinese wind turbine maker Envision for Saudi Arabia-based ACWA Power, and China Energy Engineering Corporation installed it. Envision says on its website that its 6X MW wind turbine is 160 meters (525 feet) tall and has a 17X rotor.

It’s the first turbine in ACWA Power’s 500 MW Bash wind farm near the city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan. It will feature 79 of the largest wind turbines in Central Asia and is expected to generate more than 1,650 GWh of electricity annually. It will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 750 tonnes per year.

Bash is expected to come online in the first quarter of 2025, and ACWA Power has a 25-year power purchase agreement with the JSC National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan for the project.

In 2021, ACWA Power announced it would invest $2.5 billion to build a power plant and two wind farms in Uzbekistan, and Bash is one of those two wind farms. ACWA Power now has a total of 10 projects in Uzbekistan, with a combined investment value of $ 7.5 billion.

The Uzbek government has set the ambitious goal of generating 30% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. The Central Asian country’s renewables push is happening because of reforms in the last few years, and tenders are organized with the help of international organizations such as the International Finance Corporation, which is a member of the World Bank Group.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan is also seeing renewables investment from countries such as China, Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.

Read more: The world’s largest offshore wind farm is getting its first turbines

Photo: ACWA Power

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