Baku, Azerbaijan, March 19
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Austrian Ambassador to Tehran Friedrich Stift has expressed his country’s readiness to construct solar power plants in the southeastern city of Kerman.
"We are ready to construct solar power plants in Kerman," IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Saying that Austria has already launched the construction of the first phase of a solar power plant in the city of Kerman, he added that the second phase of the project is expected to be launched over the next two years.
The first phase of the project with a capacity of 1.2 megawatts for producing power is being constructed in the Rafsanjan free trade zone, he added.
The second phase with a capacity for producing 60 megawatts is expected to cost about 55 million euros.
Iran's power plants generated over 296.699 TWh (terawatt hours) of electricity since the beginning of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21, 2017) until Feb. 30.
Nominal electric generation capacities of hydroelectric plants (11,881 MW) and Bushehr nuclear power plant (1020 MW) are equal to 15.15 and 1.3 percent of electric generation capacity, while the share of renewables stands at only 0.41 percent or 322 MW.
The country is expected to add 1,051 MW to its electric generation capacity by March 2018 - of that 632 MW will fall on renewables.
Iran plans to increase its nominal electric generation capacity to 80,000 MW by summer 2018, and to 100,000 by 2025, 1,000 MW of which should be produced from solar energy.