Water power production in Uzbekistan decreased by 20% in 2025 due to a severe water deficit – said Uzhydroenergo. At the same time, the country has accelerated the improvement of solar and wind energy, which is to gradually replace large hydropower plants and supply energy for agrarian areas and modern industry.
However, the severe water shortage in Uzbekistan seems to have good sides as well. The expanding crisis forces authorities to rapidly make solar and wind power and rethink the country's hydro-energy strategy to increase the efficiency of the full energy system.
The State-owned company Uzhydroenergo reported on January 5 that the production of water power in 2025 decreased by 20%, reaching 6.5 billion kilowatt hours (kWh). By comparison, in 2024 Uzbekistan generated 8.1 billion kWh of energy from hydropower.
Government representatives attributed this decline to the worsening water deficit. According to the study of the UPL Information Agency, the energy minister Żurabek Mirzamakhmudow stated that the tributary from cross-border rivers, combined with the amount of water collected in the reservoirs, was in 2025 about 35% lower than the average of many years. The low water level in rivers has importantly reduced the capacity of large hydroelectric power plants to make electricity.
Uzhydroenergo's message stressed that the company was trying to make the most of the hard situation, achieving a noticeable improvement in operational efficiency over time. "Internal enterprise statistic point to paradoxical dependence: in view of the overall 33 % decline in water resources in 2025, implementation of fresh management methods and modernisation activities temporarily resulted in periods of increased efficiency" – informed Uzhydroenergo.
The share of hydropower in full electricity production in Uzbekistan is clearly decreasing: from 10% in 2024 to 7.3% in the erstwhile year. At the beginning of the 21st century, hydroenergy was liable for up to 19% of the yearly generation of electricity, which shows a scalechanges.
Despite water problems, full renewable energy production increased by 29% in 2025 compared to the erstwhile year, mainly due to the fast improvement of solar power plants and wind farms, as reported by the Ministry of Energy. Solar and wind energy provided about 10.5 billion kWh in 2025, more than twice as much as the year before.
According to the Ministry statistics, electricity production from all sources increased in 2025 by 6% compared to 2024.
To make more efficient usage of the shrinking water resources, Mirzamakhmudow suggested that the government is considering a strategical departure from relying on large hydroelectric plants. Instead, officials analyse the anticipation of installing hydroelectric microgenerators on over 93,000 miles of channels and irrigation systems. specified a strategy could increase access to energy in agrarian areas without reducing the water resources needed for agriculture. The cost of a single microgenerator can be just a fewer 100 dollars, making it comparatively easy to implement on a large scale.
Source: Eurasianet
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