Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – Starting from 2030, Uzbekistan plans to export surplus electricity to Europe, according to the Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan, Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov. He announced this during the first meeting of Central Asian energy ministers in Astana.

The minister emphasized that achieving these plans would require a joint trilateral project with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan to lay a deep-water cable across the Caspian Sea, as reported by Azerbaijani media.

Uzbekistan aims to increase its renewable energy capacity to over 4 GW by the end of 2024 and exceed 20 GW by 2030, with plans to export 2 to 5 GW of this energy to Europe.

Mirzamakhmudov highlighted that the volume of exports would depend on the transmission system’s capacity and the demands of European consumers.

The proposed export route would see electricity transmitted from Uzbekistan through Kazakhstan via the Central Asian Unified Energy System, then through a deep-water cable across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, followed by transit through Georgia and another undersea cable across the Black Sea to Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria.

According to Uzbekistan’s development strategy, total generation capacity is set to increase 2.4 times to 44.9 GW by 2030, with renewable energy sources expected to account for 40% of this capacity. To achieve this, Uzbekistan plans to implement solar and wind power projects with a total capacity of 18.8 GW (8.6 GW from solar and 10.2 GW from wind).