The 150 MW Zhuzimdik wind farm in Baidibek district, Turkestan region, has reached turbine procurement. On October 15, PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation (Chengdu Institute) published a notice of intent to buy 20 wind turbines of 7.5 MW each, plus related equipment, directly from Beijing Goldwind New Energy Trading Co. The model is the GWH182-7.5 with a 110-metre hub, delivered to the Khorgos border crossing. The money is lined up too: the Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) has approved a loan of up to CNY 860.5 million to the project company, New Clean Energy LLP, for up to 15 years, with disbursement opening in 2027.
A delivery schedule that runs to October 2027
The procurement carries reference PC-0205-26J4-FG0165 and is dated October 13. It covers more than the nacelles: towers, pre-stressed anchor bolts, box-type transformer substations and interconnecting cables are all in scope, and the supplier must provide installation supervision, commissioning, trial operation and training.
Every deadline is counted from the production notice the buyer sends to the supplier, provisionally set for January 15, 2027:
Anchor bolts: at least 10 sets by March 1, 2027, the rest by April 1.
Towers: at least 4 sets by May 20, the remainder between May 21 and September 20, no fewer than one set every 7 days.
Turbines and transformers: at least 4 sets by May 31, the remainder between June 1 and October 1, again at least one set every 7 days.
The notice puts the site at roughly 43°4′N, 69°11′E, about 90 km from the city of Turkestan, covering some 1,300 hectares at 310–350 metres above sea level on fairly flat ground.
This is not Chengdu Institute's first tender for the project. In May it ran a negotiated procurement for high- and low-voltage switchgear for the "Zhuzimdik 150 MW wind power project"; an amendment issued on May 9 pushed the bid deadline to May 13.
Originally due online in Q2 2026
In an application posted on Kazakhstan's environmental portal, New Clean Energy gave the construction period as December 2024 to May 2026, with operations starting in the second quarter of 2026. At that stage it listed several candidate turbine models rated between 6.25 MW and 8 MW.
Under the new delivery plan, the last turbines reach Khorgos only by October 1, 2027, so the original timetable no longer holds. Neither the company nor the bank has published a new grid-connection date.
A two-part loan: floating in yuan, fixed in tenge
DBK's project card gives the project cost as 1.08 billion (in yuan, according to Kursiv). The bank's share of up to CNY 860.5 million covers roughly 80% of it, split into two sub-limits:
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Sub-limit 1: up to CNY 547.7 million from the bank's borrowed funds, priced at funding cost plus 1.81% a year, floating; the indicative rate is China's five-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR) plus 2.16%.
Sub-limit 2: up to CNY 312.7 million from the bank's own funds, disbursed in tenge at the National Bank of Kazakhstan rate on each drawdown date and capped at KZT 22,410,391,449. It is priced at borrowing cost plus 1.81%, fixed, with an indicative rate of 19.24%.
The five-year LPR published by the China Foreign Exchange Trade System on October 20 stands at 3.50%, which puts the indicative rate on sub-limit 1 at about 5.66%. Within a single loan, the yuan and tenge tranches are therefore about 13.6 percentage points apart. Kursiv converts the full facility to about KZT 57.2 billion. The card lists two Kazakh individuals as ultimate beneficiaries.
We previously covered DBK's yuan loan to Altyn Dala Energy for solar plants, priced at LPR plus 1.57%. Both loans follow the same template: pegged to the five-year LPR with a project-specific margin, and the margin here is wider.
What it means for Chinese companies
First, the "Chinese design institute plus Chinese equipment" model is complete on this project. Chengdu Institute runs procurement, and turbines, towers and transformers come as one package from a single Chinese supplier through Khorgos. The one-set-every-seven-days requirement means a steady flow of oversized, heavy cargo through that crossing from May to October 2027.
Second, and this is our inference: the tenge tranche costs far more than the yuan tranche. If the Chinese equipment is paid for in yuan, the yuan tranche can settle it without an extra currency conversion, while the tenge tranche is more likely to fund local construction and expenses. How the loan will actually be allocated has not been disclosed.
Third, neither the procurement nor the loan card mentions the power tariff or the offtaker, and those are what determine how the project will service 15-year debt.
Still open: whether a contract follows once the direct-procurement notice period closes; when the plant connects to the grid; when the loan agreement is signed; and what the tariff and power purchase agreement look like.
(The cover image is an AI-generated illustration and does not depict the facilities described.)
Sources:
PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation, direct procurement notice for Zhuzimdik wind turbines (via dlnyzb.com), https://www.dlnyzb.com/detail/42935295
ewindpower.cn, https://www.ewindpower.cn/news/show-htm-itemid-34678.html
PowerChina, amendment to Zhuzimdik 150 MW switchgear procurement (via yfbzb.com), http://www.yfbzb.com/inviteBid/detail/20260509_595657178.html
Development Bank of Kazakhstan, project card, https://www.kdb.kz/en/ajax/project.php?LANG=EN_&PROJECT_ID=15584
Development Bank of Kazakhstan, project card (Russian), https://www.kdb.kz/ajax/project.php?LANG=&PROJECT_ID=15584
Kursiv, https://kz.kursiv.media/2026-10-02/svan-gosbank-profinansiruet-na-57-mlrd-tege-stroitelstvo-ves-na-yuge-kazahstana/
Kursiv, https://kz.kursiv.media/2025-08-14/zhnb-podavshaya-zayavku-na-zaem-brk-kompaniya-postroit-seti-dlya-ves-na-yuge-kazahstana/
New Clean Energy LLP application, Kazakhstan environmental portal, https://ecoportal.kz/Rubric/RubService/LoadFile/45187
China Foreign Exchange Trade System (ChinaMoney), LPR, https://www.chinamoney.com.cn/chinese/bklpr/