RIYADH: Saudi energy firm ACWA Power will develop two wind power plants in Uzbekistan financed by loans of $174 million from Asian Development Bank, it has been announced, Some $40.5 million is for a facility in Bash, and $46.5 million is set aside for a development in Dzhankeldy, with both funded by ADB’s regular capital resources, according to a statement from the bank. Each power station has 79 wind turbines that will create a total of 3,235 gigawatt-hours of electricity and displace the equivalent of roughly 2 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. Bash and Dzhankeldy will form the largest utility-scale wind power facility in Central West Asia. “Uzbekistan is one of the fastest-growing economies in Central Asia, and with it comes a growing demand for energy,” said Suzanna Gaboury, director general for Private Sector Operations at ADB. “Bash and Dzhankeldy are landmark greenfield wind power projects which have a significant demonstrative impact of private sector participation across the region’s energy sector,” she added. The loans will also be used to build 282.5 kilometers of 500-kilovolt, single-circuit overhead transmission line to connect to the electricity system. Last month, ACWA Power – owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – signed agreements worth $2.5 billion with the National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan to develop three solar photovoltaic projects in the Tashkent, Bukhara, and Samarkand regions of the country. The contracts also include three battery energy storage systems with a total combined capacity of 1,500 megawatts. In August 2022, ACWA Power revealed Uzbekistan was the largest market for its investments outside of Saudi Arabia. This came as the company signed three final agreements with the Central Asian country to establish a power station with a capacity of 1.5GW, with investments amounting to $2.4 billion.