The EBRD may invest up to $1.5 billion in Kambar-Ata HPP-1 in Kyrgyzstan

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is considering the possibility of allocating up to $1.5 billion for the construction of a large hydroelectric power station in Central Asia. This was announced by the president of the bank Odile Renaud-Basso in an interview with Reuters, noting the growing demand for renewable energy sources, despite some opposition to the financing of green projects.

We are talking about the Kambar-Ata HPP–1 project – one of the largest in the field of renewable energy in the region. It is expected that the station with a capacity of 1,860 megawatts, located in Kyrgyzstan, will provide electricity to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and will also contribute to the development of agriculture in these countries. Earlier, the EBRD, together with the European Union, the European Investment Bank and the governments of the three Central Asian republics, had already signed a memorandum of understanding on a project worth 900 million euros.

Odile Renaud-Basso said that the bank is considering the possibility of providing three sovereign loans – $ 500 million each. The final decision will depend on further discussions with other stakeholders and approval by the EBRD Board of Directors. In a broader context, she stressed that interest in renewable energy sources, storage systems and networks for connecting green capacities is growing in all countries where the bank operates, as the cost of technology decreases. “We are seeing a kind of increase in demand for investments in renewable energy sources and in the grid so that more renewable sources can be connected,” Reno–Basso said.

According to the president of the bank, borrowers understand the advantages of such initiatives. “They see this as an economic opportunity to diversify… diversify the energy supply, reduce pollution, get a cheaper source of energy, the ability to export energy and so on,” she concluded.

Original (in Russian): ЕБРР может вложить до $1,5 млрд в Камбаратинскую ГЭС-1 в Кыргызстане