Uzbekistan is launching a green energy initiative in 2025, aiming to increase the share of renewable energy in the country from 16 percent currently to 26 percent by the end of the year.
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has declared 2025 “the Year of Environmental Protection and Green Economy,” according to a statement issued by the presidential press service, The Caspian Post reports citing foreign media.
“The ‘Green economy’ is not only the development of clean energy, but also the improvement of energy efficiency in various industries,” the statement notes. “This year, the goal is to maintain the rate of economic growth at a level of at least 6 percent and increase the gross domestic product to more than $125 billion. To achieve this, rationality and savings are key factors.”
To help meet the administration’s goal, 16 solar- and wind-energy generating projects with the capacity of 3.5 Gigawatts are expected to come online in 2025.
Earlier in January, Mirziyoyev announced a goal to increase the share of renewables in Uzbek energy generation to 54 percent by 2030, instead of the previously planned 40 percent. “We will introduce national systems for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and trading emission quotas,” an Uzbek government statement quoted Mirziyoyev as saying. “By 2030, we intend to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent and constantly increase this indicator.”
Mirziyoyev mentioned on January 28 that by 2030, 55 percent of new industrial and infrastructure projects should be “green” with the aim of catering to environmentally conscious importers in the West. He also instructed government ministries to prioritize developing industries that produce more value per unit of energy used, such as automobile, pharmaceutical and food industries that, according to him, “produce 15-20 times more value added per ton of [oil equivalent of] energy than chemical, construction and textile sectors.”
Mirziyoyev is pushing the use of solar panels, setting a goal of generating 1GW of power via solar panels on the roofs of businesses and private houses. Solar panels have already been installed on 60,000 roofs throughout Uzbekistan, and the plan is to install them on 50 percent of all roofs in the nation, according to a presidential press service statement, which did not specify a timeframe for reaching the goal.
Mirziyoyev’s green energy push is likely motivated by a desire to diversify the Uzbek economy, which is heavily dependent on revenue generated by raw material exports. The president also is betting on green energy to drive an economic transformation that better positions Uzbekistan in the global trading framework.
