AIIB Watch Cases

Status: Proposed
Timeframe: 2024-2025 
Area: Uzbekistan
AIIB Investment Amount: 150 million USD
Total Project Cost: 2,543 million USD
Co-financier: ADB

E&S Category: A

Project details:

The project involves the development of a 1,500 MW wind power plant and a 300 MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in the Karakalpakstan region of Uzbekistan. Implemented by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) majority-owned by ACWA Power, the project includes a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement with JSC National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan as the offtaker. It aims to enhance renewable energy capacity and support Uzbekistan's transition to clean energy. It includes the installation 800km of overhead transmission lines (OHTL) through Uzbekistan.

 

Project Concerns: 

The OHTL will affect the livelihood of over 200 farmers due to restricted land use and physically displace 5 households according to the available documents. The level of severity to which the over 200 farmers are affected is not specified in available documentation.  

According to the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (ESIA) no indigenous people are affected by the project, even though no indigenous people assessment was conducted. The local Karakalpak people have their own language, are attached to the autonomous region of Karakalpakstan and have their own identity. They are also a minority group under threat after the Aral Sea ecological catastrophe. 

The project faces significant concerns in terms of biodiversity and endangered species. It includes no cumulative impact assessment with other infrastructure projects in the area and no landscape scale assessment. The OHTL would pose a significant threat to the Asian houbara bustard, a globally vulnerable bird whose collision with transmission lines cannot be mitigated. 

The project would facilitate the access of poachers to the Ustyurt plateau – one of the wildest and most inaccessible areas in Central Asia. 

Further, the project is in close proximity to the Cold Winter Deserts of Turan UNESCO Heritage Site (including the Ustyurt National Park). Due to the proximity of the project and the national park there is an ongoing disagreement about the size of the buffer zone between ACWA Power and the responsible government agency for the park. The draft ESIA does not acknowledge the UNESCO Heritage Site and has serious shortcomings and transparency concerns. 

CSO reports and organizations monitoring: CEE Bankwatch Network, IUCN SSC Bustard Specialist Group

Further information: 

AIIB Website

ADB Website

Ornithological Society of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia (OSME) Article

Last update: 21.01.2025