News
Saudi Firm ACWA Power To Build 1.5 GW Wind Farm In Uzbekistan
The huge Kungrad Wind Farm will have an investment value of $2.4 billion, while offsetting 2.4 million tons of carbon annually.
Like many countries worldwide, Uzbekistan is beginning to ramp up its clean energy efforts. As part of the nation’s plans to decarbonize, Saudi Arabian company ACWA Power has been tasked to build a 1.5-gigawatt power generation plant in Karakalpakstan, which will be named the Kungrad Wind Farm.
With purchase and investment agreements signed in August 2022, ACWA is now ready to start work on three separate 500-megawatt wind turbine projects on the Uzbek site, plus an additional 100-megawatt battery storage system. In total, the site is projected to have an investment value of $2.4 billion and will be the largest single-site wind farm in Central Asia.
The Kungrad Wind Farm will offset 2.4 million tons of carbon emissions annually and support a long-term Uzbek government strategy to diversify the country’s energy production, which also aims to add 8 gigawatts and 12 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity, respectively, by 2030.
Also Read: Dubai Financial Center Launches Digital Economy Court
“The development of green energy and market reform go hand in hand in Uzbekistan, and the Kungrad project is a milestone both for our wind industry and the new public-private partnership model […] The wind farm in Karakalpakstan, built by our reliable partner ACWA Power, will be another pillar of a sustainable and reliable energy system in Uzbekistan,” says Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov, Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan.
The project will be fully operational by 2027 when it will begin supplying energy to 1.65 million homes.
“The signing of key agreements today for the landmark Kungrad wind farm project, which will set a new benchmark for sustainable energy development in the region, would not have been possible without the guidance of our visionary leadership and the trust and commitment of our partners from the Uzbek government,” says Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman, ACWA Power.
The 1.5-gigawatt Kungrad Wind Farm is ACWA Power’s fifth project in Uzbekistan. As part of the recently signed collaboration, the Saudi Arabian company will also construct several green hydrogen production plants in the Central Asian country, as Uzbekistan aims to lessen its reliance on natural gas.
News
Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users
The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.
Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.
Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.
Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.
Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.
Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide
To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.
While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.
Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.
Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users
PayPal & TerraPay Join Forces For Cross-Border MENA Payments
Influencer Growth Fuels Saudi Creator Economy Surge
Dubai Integrates LiDAR & Digital Twins For Road Management
