AKIPRESS.COM - The EBRD, in partnership with the Green Climate Fund (GCF), is stepping up its efforts to support renewables in Kazakhstan with a loan of up to US$ 6.4 million to finance a new 10 MW solar plant in the Zhanakorgan District in southern Kazakhstan, the EBRD reports.

The plant will generate over 14.8 GWh of electricity per year and will help to reduce CO2 emissions by close to 13,000 tonnes per year.

This is the first solar plant in Kazakhstan to be developed under an auction scheme, a system supported by the EBRD to promote competitive pricing and stimulate investments into renewables.

The project documentation was signed during the XII Kazenergy Eurasian Forum in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, by Aida Sitdikova, EBRD Director of Energy Eurasia for Sustainable Infrastructure Group; Kanat Bozumbayev, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan; and Vladimir Slavev Tabutov, General Manager of the borrower, HEC-K T LLP, a subsidiary of Hydroenergy Company JSC, a Bulgaria-based company with extensive experience in construction, operation and maintenance of PV plants across the globe.

The financing package arranged by the EBRD comprises a loan of up to KZT 1.7 billion (US$ 4.4 million) in local currency and in US dollars, as well as up to US$ 2 million from the GCF.

This is the 10th project signed under the Bank’s Kazakhstan Renewables Framework, a €200 million facility for financing renewable energy projects in Kazakhstan. The framework was approved in 2016 and benefits from a US$ 110 million contribution from the GCF. In September 2019, the Bank approved a €300 million extension of the Kazakhstan Renewables Framework.

In 2018 alone, under its Green Economy Transition approach, the EBRD invested €3.4 billion in green economy projects, representing 36 per cent of total investment across its regions.