Early Warning System

Countries

Uzbekistan

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Specific Location

Samarkand, Surkhandarya, Djizzakh

Whenever identified, the area within countries where the impacts of the investment may be experienced. Exact locations of projects may not be identified fully or at all in project documents. Please review updated project documents and community-led assessments.

Financial Institutions

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Approved

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Voting Date

Feb 8, 2023

Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.

Borrower

Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC)

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Energy

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 145.00 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Loan Amount (USD)

$ 145.00 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Bank Documents

Project Summary (January 31, 2023) [Original Source]

Corporate Actor Documents

Other Related Projects

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ AIIB website

Updated in EWS May 9, 2023

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Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the AIIB website, this project will support Uzbekistan's energy transition through the expansion of solar photovoltaic installed capacity.

The Project involves the design, financing, construction, ownership, operation, and maintenance of three solar photovoltaic independent power plants representing a combined 897 megawatt (MW) of installed capacity (Samarkand 220MW plant, Jizzakh 220MW plant and Sherabad 456.7MW plant), and their associated interconnection facilities.

The Project is underpinned by three separate long-term power purchase agreements with JSC National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan. Each plant has its own separate Government Support Agreement and Investment Agreement, Land Agreement, and Land Lease Agreement.

Early Warning System Project Analysis

For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

Samarkand 220MW solar PV plant (L0677A)

A 220MW solar PV plant situated in a 438-hectare (ha) area in the Kattakurgan district, 50 kilometers (km) northwest of the city of Samarkand, in the Samarkand region, in the Republic of Uzbekistan (Samarkand Plant). The Samarkand Plant will be connected to the national grid by the 4.5 km 220kV new Overhead Transmission Line (OHL) to the nearest substation, in Ishtihan.
Disclosure on Masdar's website: https://masdar.ae/en/Masdar-Clean-Energy/Projects/Samarkand-Solar-Project

Jizzakh 220MW solar PV plant (L0677B)

A 220MW solar PV plant situated in a 562-ha area situated 243 km southwest of Tashkent and 25 km west of the city of Jizzakh, in the Galaoroll district, in the Jizzakh Region, in the Republic of Uzbekistan (Jizzakh Plant). The Jizzakh Plant will be connected to the national grid by the 14.70 km 220 kV new OHL to the nearest substation, in Saribazar.
Disclosure on Masdar's website: https://masdar.ae/Masdar-Clean-Energy/Projects/Jizzakh-Solar-Project

Sherabad 456.7MW solar PV plant (L0677C)

A 456.7MW peak capacity plant situated in a 631-ha area around 20 km south-west from Sherabad in the Surkhandarya region, in the Republic of Uzbekistan (The Sherabad Plant). The Sherabad Plant will be connected to the national grid by the 50.5 km 220kV new OHL to the nearest substation, in Jarkurgan.
Disclosure on Masdar's website: https://masdar.ae/en/Masdar-Clean-Energy/Projects/Sherabad-Solar-Project

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

The Project is expected to be financed by a group of international financial institutions including the ADB, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), in addition to AIIB (the Lenders).

Private Actors Description

A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

As stated by the AIIB, the PV plants are being developed by Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC), a global leader in renewable energy and sustainable urban development, through three separate special-purpose entities domiciled in Uzbekistan. Masdar was selected through an international competitive tender set up by the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Energy with assistance from the International Finance Corporation Scaling Solar 2 program (Samarkand and Jizzakh PV plants) and the Asian Development Bank's PPP Advisory Office (Sherabad PV plant).

Private Actor 1	Private Actor 1 Role	Private Actor 1 Sector	Relation	Private Actor 2	Private Actor 2 Role	Private Actor 2 Sector
-	-	-	-	Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC - Masdar	Client	Energy

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Project Team Leader AIIB:

Francisco-José Fortuny
Senior Investment Operations Specialist
fj.fortuny@aiib.org

Mehek Marwaha
Senior Investment Operations Specialist
mehek.marwaha@aiib.org

Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC):

Phone: +971 2 653 3333
Fax: +971 2 653 6002
Company's website: http://www.masdar.ae
Address: Presidential Flight, Khalifa City A, Abu Dhabi, UAE, P.O. Box 54115

Masdar's Project Team:

Mustafa Khasawneh
Senior Project Engineer
mkhasawneh@masdar.ae

Carlos Ponte
Head, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
cponte@masdar.ae

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit an information request for project information at: https://www.aiib.org/en/contact/information-request/index.html

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AIIB

The AIIB has established the Accountability Mechanism for Project-Affected People (PPM). The PPM provides Òan opportunity for an independent and impartial review of submissions from Project-affected people who believe they have been or are likely to be adversely affected by AIIBÕs failure to implement the ESP in situations when their concerns cannot be addressed satisfactorily through Project level GRMs or AIIB Management processes.Ó Two or more project-affected people can file a complaint. Under the current AIIB policy, when the bank co-finances a project with another development bank, it may apply the other bank's standards. You can refer to the Project Summary Information document to find out which standards apply. You can learn more about the PPM and how to file a complaint at: https://www.aiib.org/en/about-aiib/who-we-are/project-affected-peoples-mechanism/how-we-assist-you/index.html

The complaint submission form can be accessed in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Chinese, English, Tagalog, Hindi, Nepali, Russian, Turkish, or Urdu. The submission form can be found at: https://www.aiib.org/en/about-aiib/who-we-are/project-affected-peoples-mechanism/submission/index.html