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EBRD + EU to back Italian company Voltalia’s Uzbekistan solar project: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved a financial package of USD 54.6 mn to support the Voltalia-owned Sarimay Solar’s renewables project in Uzbekistan, according to a press release. The EU’s European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus will also back the company by providing an unfunded guarantee covering a loan tranche of USD 7 mn. The money will fund the development of a 100 MW solar PV plant in Uzbekistan that is expected to generate up to 252 GWh of electricity per year and reduce annual emissions by more than 141,000 tonnes.
Regional companies have also shown interest in Uzbekistan: UAE’s Tadweer is investing USD 200 mn in a waste-to-energy plant in Uzbekistan as part of a country-wide USD 1.3 bn investment push, and KSA’s Acwa Power is collaborating with Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation to develop 2.5 GW worth of renewable energy projects and nearly 1 GW worth of battery energy storage systems in the country valued at USD 4.2 bn.
A mega Canadian CCS project is in the works: A Canadian alliance of oil sands producers has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a CAD 16 bn carbon capture and storage (CCS) network aimed at reducing the industry’s carbon emissions, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The proposal wants to line up possible manufacturers and developers for a transmission pipeline that will move carbon from production sites to underground sequestration and storage facilities in Alberta, Canada. The project, however, would need federal backing to materialize, which is all but certain, Bloomberg added.
Why it matters: The oil sands industry produces some of the highest carbon-emitting grades of crude in the world, and the Canadian group hopes the project would help the sector cut emissions by 22 mn metric tons by 2030.
