Updating the Kyrgyz Republic’s Aging Hydropower Tash-Kumyr, Kyrgyz Republic

8.5K

TONs OF CO₂ EMIssIONs REdUCEd ANNUAllY

Inhabitants 614,118

GdP per capita $547

Geographic area 273 km²

ThE ChAllENGE

Kandahar is a rapidly industrializing area and the second-largest city in Afghanistan. It is essential that electricity infrastructure for renewable energy is developed so that it can contribute to reducing Afghanistan’s heavy reliance on imported energy.

CO-BENEFITs

Economic

The solar plant is on the periphery of a rapidly industrializing area close to the airport, where the manufacturing sector will benefit from additional electricity supply.

social

Construction and operation of the Kandahar solar plant has generated employment opportunities for the local community.

afghanistan’s first Utility-scale solar plant

The first utility-scale solar plant has been built just outside Afghanistan’s second-largest city. The 15 MW plant is the first of many as the country moves toward the 40% renewable target it has set for itself by 2032.

Afghanistan's first and largest solar power plant to date is located 25 km southwest from Kandahar, a 15 MW array with over 55,000 PV panels. It provides an estimated 27.5 GWh of electricity annually fed into the national grid, which is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by over 8,500 tCO₂e annually.

Afghanistan is largely reliant on imported energy, with 80% of the power and 97% of fuel coming from outside its borders. In terms of the energy mix, over half comes from hydropower, and the rest is split between diesel or heavy fuelpowered plants. Before this project, just 3 MW (1%) was coming from solar power, despite the vast capacity the country holds. Renewable energy potential in the country is estimated to exceed 300,000 MW, around six times the level of currently installed generation capacity.

ADB signed a loan with a special purpose vehicle and subsidiaries owned by the 77 Construction, Contracting, and Trading Group (77 Group), and also administered a $3.85 million loan from the Canadian Climate Fund for Private Sector in Asia II (CFPS II) for the project.

a 15 mW solar power plant in afghanistan. This project is the first of several that will contribute toward the government’s target of boosting renewables to a 40% share of the national energy mix by 2032 (photo by 77 Afghanistan).