Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Senior Iranian official says that liquid fuels diesel, shared some 44 percent of consumption in the country's power plants during the last Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20.
Iranian energy minister, Hamid Chitchian stated that the country should take serious steps to decrease its demand for fossil fuels by using alternatives, in particular solar energy, the country's Fars news agency reported on April 10.
Mostafa Kashkouli, the head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) announced in March that during the last Iranian calendar year, about 92 billion liters of gasoline, oil-gas, kerosene and fuel oil had been consumed in Iran, of which 27 billion liters were burnt in the power plants, 4.3 billion liters more than the previous year.
Power plants consumed 60 percent more diesel, compared to the preceding year.
Chitchian went on to say that by using solar energy Iran can decrease diesel consumption by 25 percent for producing each kilowatt of electricity.
This will lead to save of some 20 cents for each kilowatt of generated electricity, while every litre of imported diesel costs about 80 cents for Iran, the minister said.
Earlier, managing Director of Iran Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution Management Company (TAVANIR) Homayoun Haeri announced that the country plans to produce 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity from renewable energy sources in the current Iranian calendar year.
The head of Iran Electrical Industry Syndicate, Mohammad Parsa, said on Jan. 21 that Iran's private sector accounts for only five percent of the country's total electricity generation.
"The country's total potential for producing solar and wind energy is estimated to be around 40 million and 100,000 megawatt hours respectively," he added.
Iran is currently the biggest electricity producer in the Middle East.
Iran's total electricity generation stood at 263 billion kilowatt hours during the last Iranian calendar year, which indicates an increase by 3.6 percent compared the preceding year, according to the annual report of the country's energy ministry.
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