Uzbekistan, a long-time opponent to neighboring nations building hydropower plants, has declared its own ambitious plans to harness the power-generating potential of rivers, according to EurasiaNet.org.
News website Podrobno.uz reported on May 3 that the government intends to build 42 new hydropower plants in the coming five years. Another 32 existing hydropower stations will be overhauled under the same program.
Those intentions have been laid out in the presidential agenda for the development of hydropower in 2017-2021.
Uzbekistan continues to rely heavily on creaky energy infrastructure dating back to Soviet times. As a partial result, in the provinces, particularly in the Ferghana Valley and in the Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya and Samarkand regions, power shortages are a chronic problem.
The use of water resources for the generation of electricity is rare. In fact, reliance on renewable energy is weak on the whole. According to data cited by RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, the proportion of renewables in total electricity output in Uzbekistan amounts to less than 1 percent.
Solar energy is in principle a highly promising avenue. The country typically has around 320 days of sunshine in any given year, amounting to 51 billion tons of oil equivalent in energy terms.
Zokir Rahimov, the director of the Tashkent-based Eko-Energiya research center, told EurasiaNet.org that as solar energy-conversion technology is currently all imported, harnessing the sun’s potential remains more expensive than using more traditional energy sources, which currently produce power at the cost of $0.02 per 1 kilowatt.
Uzbekistan does not currently provide subsidies for the acquisition of solar panels, so the incentives simply are not there. Also, private investors are at the moment forbidden from building their own solar stations and selling power to the public.
Some companies have turned to the technology for their use, however. A 1.2 megawatt solar station completed in April 2016 in collaboration with Australia-based energy industry company ENESOL is used to provide power to natural gas fields in the Bukhara region operated by Russia’s LUKoil.
Uzbek lawmakers are currently working to change all that with legislation titled “On Renewable Energy Sources,” which is slated for approval by the fall.
Russia interior minister arrives in Dushanbe
Russia’s foreign and justice ministries proposes to remove Taliban from terror blacklist
Rahmon urges regional administrators of Khatlon to take adequate measures to implement the prognosis of planting crops and effective use of land
Tajik, Kyrgyz presidents exchange cables of congratulations
Tajikistan shows interest in cooperating with Turkmenistan in the field of “smart city” technologies
The first group of Tajik Hajj pilgrims departed for Saudi Arabia on May 25
Zelenskiy invites all the Central Asian presidents to the peace summit in Switzerland
Russian president arrives in Uzbekistan on the third foreign trip of his new term
Russian president pays two-day visit to Belarus to discuss security, tactical nuclear weapon exercises
Due to corruption and lack of specialists Tajikistan fails to succeed with recycling of energy-saving light bulbs
All news
Авторизуйтесь, пожалуйста