( WORDS) Despite the global economic slowdown caused by Covid-19, the pace of development of an independent power project (IPP) market in Uzbekistan is tangibly picking up. This month ACWA Power closed on the $750 million debt financing for the 1.5GW Syrdarya 1 CCGT project – the first large-scale Uzbek IPP financing to reach financial close – and more IPP deals (both renewables and gas-fired) look set to follow given the recent proliferation of tenders and upcoming regulatory environment streamlining. In February the Uzbek government issued a new draft law on electric power. If approved, the new regulation will unify and replace all previous regulations and include new articles to further support renewables. And although Uzbekistan has abundant gas, its focus is as strong on renewables development as it is gas-fired. The government is looking to reduce consumption of natural gas for energy production from 16.5 to 12.1 billion cubic meters by 2030 and use gas produced domestically for conversion into high-value polymer export products. Coextensively, it has adopted a 10-year electricity plan – developed jointly with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank – that includes targets of 5GW of solar, 1.9GW of hydropower and up to 3GW of wind by 2030.