Tehran, Iran, December 6
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Geothermal New Zealand Inc. is in Iran to meet Iranian partners and explore venues for cooperation on geothermal power generation projects.
"I am here with a trade mission from New Zealand headed by one of our ministers to learn about geothermal opportunities and new energy in general," Geothermal New Zealand Executive Director Mike Allen told Trend December 6.
"New Zealand was involved in the early project developments of Sabalan geothermal area in Iran some 15 years ago," he noted. "Now we are looking into what more is available."
During the summer of 1998, a survey of the Mt Sabalan geothermal area, in northwest Iran, was undertaken for SUNA (Renewable Energy Organization of the Ministry of Energy, Islamic Republic of Iran). The primary objective of this survey was to carry out geothermal exploration of the Sabalan area to delineate any resistivity anomalies that may be associated with high temperature geothermal resources.
The subsurface resistivity structure was modelled to assess the size of the geothermal resources, to facilitate the choice of initial exploration well sites, and to prepare conceptual models for the hydrology of the geothermal fluid reservoirs.
"Iran has good geothermal potential. The government is encouraging the private sector for activity. We are interested in the technical, rather than investment part of the activities," Allen said.
Exploration for geothermal resources in the Sabalan mountains of northern Iran, undertaken in the summer of 1998, identified several low resistivity anomalies around the flanks of the volcanic complex that are worth investigating by deep drill-holes.
Allen noted that his country has 60 years of operation experience in the geothermal field, which now provides for 20 percent of the country’s power generation.
"We have a lot to share. I held some meetings with the private sector as well as the Ministry of Energy. We are seeing what the common interests are."
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