TASHKENT (Central Asia Newswire) – Chinese Xian Electric will assist Uzbekistan in constructing wind farms in the Central Asian state, local Uzbek media reported on Wednesday. The Chinese firm has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Uzbekenergo, the country’s governing body for energy, to conduct a feasibility study on the establishment of wind farms in the Central Asian state.

“In the coming months, we plan to proceed with a feasibility study on the project,” a source in the Uzbek government told Noviy Vek.

China Xian Electric is one of the first manufacturing enterprises that was granted by the State with the privileges of import and export, international engineering contracting and is an electric manufacturing group with its own finance institute. Its core member, Xian Electrical Machineries Manufacturing Corporation was established in 1953, and has been developed into the largest Research and Development (R&D), production and operations base for complete set of high and ultra-high voltage AC/DC transmission and distribution equipment and other electrical products in China.

Uzbekistan is a gas-rich state which has seen gas exports expand in recent months. Earlier this week, Lukoil said it increased production of Uzbek gas by 24.2% last year. But Uzbek locals have complained that regions of the country had no gas during the bitter winter months, and the Uzbek government has been increasing investments in non-gas fuel sources such as coal and wind power.

Late last year, Uzbekistan’s state coal-producing firm Uzbekcoal (Uzbekugol) said it would invest $90 mln in its logistics infrastructure to improve equipment and transportation of the resource. Tuesday, the company said it would invest $325 mln to produce more lignite, a fuel commonly used in steam-electric power generation.