March 1, 2023

Expanding the use of renewable energy in Uzbekistan

The President signed the Resolution on measures to accelerate the introduction of renewable energy sources and energy-saving technologies in 2023 (hereinafter – the “Resolution”).

The Resolution aims to promote renewable energy sources (hereinafter – “RES”) in the social sphere, in the sphere of housing and communal services, and to compensate for energy shortages in the regions of the country by improving energy efficiency. The Resolution prescribes to::

  • Commission RES with a total capacity of 4,300 MW;
  • Produce an additional 5 billion KW of electricity and save 8 billion cubic metres of natural gas through the construction of RES facilities, as well as switching consumers to alternative energy and implementing energy-saving technologies;
  • Allocate 4 billion USD for these purposes.

It is also planned to establish  LLC“Yashil Energy” (hereinafter – “Company”). The Company will instal small capacity RES installations on the buildings and facilities of social facilities, public authorities and other organisations.

The Company can lease parts of buildings and facilities of state bodies after it installs RES installations at its own expense, and enter into direct contracts for the purchase of RES installations and their spare parts.

From March 1, 2023:

  • the Green Energy banking financial product will be introduced to finance measures for the purchase and installation of RES installations by entrepreneurs, the introduction of energy-saving technologies and the improvement of energy efficiency of production processes;
  • it is not required to obtain an additional technical condition when connecting RES installations to the power grid that do not exceed the capacity specified in the technical conditions issued for connection to the unified electric power system (hereinafter referred to as the “System”).

From April 1, 2023, individuals and legal entities that have installed RES installations with a total capacity of up to 100 KW are exempt from (1) property tax – according to these installations; (2) land tax – according to the sites occupied by these installations; (3) income tax – calculated on the profit for electricity sold by legal entities for the common grid, from the date of their commissioning (for 3 years), in the case of their installation with the possibility of accumulating electric energy with a capacity of at least 25% of the capacity of installed solar panels – for up to 10 years.

In addition, at the same time, it is planned to implement the “Quyoshli xonadon” program, within the framework of which:

  • for each KW of electricity produced on solar panels installed on facilities owned by individuals, the surplus from their own consumption of which is transferred to the system, 1000 UZS of subsidies are allocated from the State Budget;
  • the subsidy funds are not included in the total income of individuals;
  • the subsidy is transferred monthly to citizens’ bank plastic cards via the “Soliq” mobile application.

From May 1, 2023:

  • the requirement to install solar panels on at least 50% of the free part of the roof of commissioned multi-storey buildings will be introduced;
  • issuing technical specifications for connection to natural gas networks to newly created greenhouses and producers of cement, bricks and lime will be prohibited;
  • at all filling stations (gasoline, liquefied and compressed gas) at least 50% of the provision of electricity for technical and household needs and lighting of their territory is covered by solar panels installed at these facilities.