Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia and Saudi companies signed three major development agreements worth USUS$12 billion, the implementation of which will be a cardinal step towards a new stage of Uzbek-Saudi energy cooperation.

The agreements were signed during the state visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The agreements are intended to become a platform for developing cooperation in the fuel and energy complex between the two countries. In particular, interaction is envisaged, including investments by the Saudi side, in the development of green hydrogen in Uzbekistan.

The first document is the Agreement on the construction by ACWA Power of a wind farm with a capacity of 1.5 GW in the Republic of Karakalpakstan. This project will become the largest wind farm not only in the region, but throughout the world. It is planned that the wind farm capacity will be able to provide electricity to 1.65 million households and offset 2.4 million tons of carbon emissions per year.

The second Cooperation Agreement, focused on the development of research and development and subsequent production of green hydrogen in the Republic of Uzbekistan, was signed with ACWA Power and Air Products.

Also, a document was signed expressing the intention of the Saudi side to invest in the energy complex of the Republic of Uzbekistan in the next 5 years 10 billion dollars. Within its framework, it is planned to implement projects in a number of promising areas. Among them:

- continuation of cooperation in the field of renewable energy - generation based on wind and solar energy, as well as projects of concentrated solar energy for electricity generation;

- further cooperation on generation projects using natural gas as a fuel, in particular, on power plants with a combined cycle based on gas turbines;

- projects aimed at using the most modern technologies for the storage and accumulation of electricity to ensure the stability of the network, for storage stations based on hydroelectric power plants;

- partnership in the field of localization of production of equipment, spare parts and services used in the energy sector, in the field of human capacity building and joint scientific developments.

To date, a number of energy projects are being implemented in Uzbekistan with partners from Saudi Arabia, in particular with ACWA Power, a leading Saudi developer, investor and operator of power plants, as well as desalination and green hydrogen plants around the world.

Thus, ACWA Power is building 2 wind farms with a capacity of 500 megawatts each in two districts of Bukhara region. Also, a wind power plant with a capacity of 100 megawatts is being built in he Karauzyak region of the Republic of Karakalpakstan.

At the same time, this Saudi company is building a thermal power plant with a capacity of 1,500 megawatts in the city of Shirin, Syrdarya region, and its commissioning is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023.

The total capacity of these 3 wind farms and thermal power plants in Syrdarya is 2600 megawatts.