Uzbekistan Proves The Folly Of US Fossil Gasoline Insanity

Assist CleanTechnica’s work by means of a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

It is a story about Uzbekistan, and I’m ashamed to say that once I first noticed the headline, I had no thought the place that nation was. By way of practically twenty years of training at among the best colleges, I don’t recall Uzbekistan being talked about even as soon as. I do know our readers are all above common, however it occurred to me that I won’t be the one one who was geographically challenged, so I went to Google Maps for enlightenment. Here’s what I discovered:

Whereas the USA is hell bent on forcing its fossil fuels down the throats of different nations, Uzbekistan is displaying the best way towards a renewable power future. On December 5, 2025, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, president of the Republic of Uzbekistan, celebrated the beginning of development for brand new power capacities and infrastructure services.

The brand new era, storage, and manufacturing services, together with different power infrastructure tasks, are a part of an $11 billion funding technique aimed toward strengthening the county’s nationwide power grid. They embody 16 photo voltaic, wind, thermal, and hydro energy plans price $3.3 billion with a capability of three.5 GW. In line with EuroNews, the brand new services will likely be distributed throughout a number of areas of the nation and signify a mixture of private and non-private funding.

As soon as accomplished, the brand new producing services are anticipated so as to add a billion kWh of electrical energy to {the electrical} grid in Uzbekistan every year. In 2026, the quantity of “inexperienced” power produced within the nation will attain 23 billion kWh — sufficient to produce all of Uzbekistan’s annual electrical energy wants. The change to wash power will assist scale back the nation’s consumption of methane by practically 7 billion cubic meters and forestall 11 million tons of dangerous emissions from being dumped into the environment.

Among the many tasks being launched are 10 power storage techniques with a complete capability of 1,245 megawatts, which can provide 1.5 billion kWh of electrical energy to the grid throughout peak masses. 11 massive substations and 420 kilometers of high-voltage networks are being commissioned, guaranteeing the steady operation of the power system.

No Enter From US

Did you discover the featured picture displaying the flags behind the dignitaries on the ceremony? One was outstanding by its absence. In line with the Caspian Press, China is anticipated to produce greater than $15 billion in direct funding in Uzbekistan, bringing the overall worth of joint tasks between the 2 international locations to just about $90 billion — a results of China’s belt and street technique.

Uzbekistan and China are presently engaged on greater than 30 power tasks, with a mixed capability of practically 10 GW and a worth exceeding $9 billion. Moreover, 14 new power tasks price virtually $2 billion have been launched lately.

President Mirziyoyev and Zhou Yuanlong, President of China Datang, mentioned increasing photovoltaic vegetation, constructing new services, and boosting energy-storage capability. The talks additionally lined workforce coaching, the creation of a analysis laboratory, and the introduction of renewable power in agriculture and livestock sectors.

In his assembly with Xu Liu, head of China Vitality Engineering Company, Mirziyoyev emphasised the significance of creating renewable power sources and high-voltage transmission networks, as they proceed their work on solar energy stations and power storage techniques throughout Uzbekistan.

Meng Qinglin, chairman of Sinoma Vitality, up to date the president on the development of a wind energy plant and a neighborhood wind-turbine blade manufacturing manufacturing unit. The discussions additionally touched on technological options for waste remedy within the chemical and development industries, with a give attention to accelerating ongoing tasks.

President Mirziyoyev additionally met with Nan Yi, CEO of Common Vitality, to debate rushing up the event of wind energy vegetation throughout the nation. Moreover, he met Kang Hubiao, head of China Common Expertise, to evaluate the operations of a brand new co-generation plant and discover alternatives for increasing the corporate’s investments in Uzbekistan.

Lastly, President Mirziyoyev supported the plans of Miao Zechun, CEO of Poly Changda Engineering, to construct a brand new power storage system in 2026, additional advancing the nation’s renewable power infrastructure. The conferences underscore the rising technological and power partnership between Uzbekistan and China as each nations work collectively to advertise sustainable growth and power independence.

Different Nations Assist Uzbekistan’s Inexperienced Vitality Aim

Lest you suppose it was all about China in Uzbekistan this week, listed below are among the different officers in attendance: the power ministers from the United Arab Emirates, Türkiye, Azerbaijan, and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to representatives of the World Financial institution, the European Financial institution for Reconstruction and Improvement, the Asian Improvement Financial institution, the Asian Infrastructure Funding Financial institution, and the Islamic Improvement Financial institution.

Company leaders from ACWA Energy of Saudi Arabia, Aksa Enerji and Cengiz Enerji of Türkiye, Masdar from the UAE, China Vitality, Datang, Sinoma, and Poly from China, EDF, Voltalia, and TotalEnergies from France, Siemens Vitality from Germany, and Nebras Energy from Qatar have been available as nicely.

The president of Uzbekistan advised the convention, “Given the speedy development of the financial system and the growing wants of the inhabitants, we’re implementing massive scale reforms within the power sector. On this space, we now have outlined two key targets. The primary is to make sure dependable and uninterrupted power provide to all industries and areas. The second is to realize this primarily by means of fashionable, environmentally pleasant, and renewable power sources.”

Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Energy is likely one of the most lively buyers within the nation. “Uzbekistan’s power combine is turning into greener yearly,” mentioned Jon Zaidi, who leads the corporate’s efforts within the nation. “This 12 months alone we added greater than 2,500 megawatts to the grid, and the Imaginative and prescient 2030 goal of reaching 54% renewables is essential for us.”

France’s Voltalia lately signed an funding settlement for a 200 megawatt hybrid venture combining wind era and storage. In line with deputy CEO Yoni Ammar, “We’re additionally creating a 500 megawatt storage venture known as Turan, and anticipate development to start in 2026.”

Not all the things in Uzbekistan’s future power plans consists of renewables. European firms are additionally supporting extra standard power tasks. Électricité de France (EDF) Central Asia mentioned, “In Uzbekistan we’re constructing two main fuel fired energy vegetation along with companions from Japan, Qatar and Germany, with the primary turbine assessments set to happen this week.”

Hydro is a big a part of the electrical energy street map. Subsequent 12 months will see the start of the Kambarata-1 hydropower venture in cooperation with Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, which is meant to advertise the environment friendly and joint use of the area’s hydroelectric potential. In 2025, 40 megawatts of small and micro hydropower vegetation have been put in all through the nation. Subsequent 12 months, a further 65 megawatts of small and micro hydropower vegetation will likely be added.

Along with Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan sees itself as a key part of a “inexperienced” hall for electrical energy exports to Europe. It’s positioning itself to have the power assets wanted to turn out to be a hub for information facilities that can appeal to new enterprise — like BYD — to the nation.

Irreconcilable Variations

It doesn’t take a lot to see the distinction between the bashing of renewables by the present US administration and their embrace by many of the remainder of the world. The disconnect facilities on dispatchability — the flexibility to ship electrons to the grid when wanted. The MAGAsphere insists that renewables are a rip-off as a result of the solar doesn’t at all times shine and the wind doesn’t at all times blow. Due to this fact, it’s unreliable.

They know nothing of power storage applied sciences which have matured previously 5 years or of demand response methods that use the accessible provide of electrical energy extra properly, thereby reducing demand.

It must be famous that nations like Uzbekistan are lumped into the class of “shithole international locations” and its residents thought of “rubbish” by the president of the Unites States. Whereas the US is thumping its chest about spending tens of millions of {dollars} to blow small boats out of the water, China is busy doing enterprise. Uzbekistan is the clearest instance of which imaginative and prescient of the long run is more likely to prevail.