Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.27
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
With 290 sunny days covering most part of Iran, the Islamic Republic has huge potential to boost the renewables’ share in the country’s power generation.
Currently the figure stands at about 0.3 percent (240 megawatts), but according to an official document, obtained by Trend, the Energy Ministry of Iran has planned to increase the share of renewables in Iran’s total power generation to 3.78 percent by March 20 and 5 percent by March 2011.
Recently, the deputy of Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian told Trend on October 18 that Iran has 5-10 gigawatts (GW) renewable power firm projects for foreign companies in the next ten years.
Power plants |
2016/2017 MW |
2017/2018 MW |
2018/2019 MW |
2019/2020 MW |
New solar power firms |
350 |
600 |
960 |
960 |
New wind firms |
140 |
90 |
100 |
100 |
Total cumulative renewables |
730 |
1420 |
2480 |
3540 |
Total power generation |
77422 |
80862 |
81997 |
91254 |
Iran’s power generation plans from current fiscal year to March 2020
The document didn’t cover the statistics for 2021, when Iran’s National 5-year Plan ends, but Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian told Trend in August that in five years, Iran expects to have actualized 5,000 MW of the power generated from renewable sources.
“Iran has devised plans worth $30 billion for developing its power infrastructure in the following five years, which include building power plants, repairing and upgrading current ones, as well as developing and making the power grid smart… Iran would add 26 GW to its nominal power generation capacity by 2021,” he said.
According to a report, published on energy ministry’s official website on Oct.26, Chitchian said during signing a memorandum of understanding with Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen on energy sector Iran keen to import the” technology” of renewables firms.
During the current fiscal year, started on March 21, Iran added 5 MW to its renewables capacity.
Dalga Khatinoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Iran news service, follow him on Twitter:@dalgakhatinoglu