Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27
By Dalga Khatinoglu – Trend:
Deputy Minister and the head of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization of Iran Seyyed Mohammad Sadeghzadeh stated that Iran is still seriously committed to generate 5GW Renewable Energy Sources (RES) within the timeframe of five years.
According to the Energy Ministry’s official website, Sadeghzadeh added that the country’s power generation from RES would reach 1 GW by the end of current fiscal year on March 20th, 2018.
Iran had already added 29 MW to the country’s RES capabilities during the last fiscal year, which brought the total volume of production up to 264 MW, or 0.34 percent of Iran’s total nominal power generation capacity.
Iran had planned to add 490 MW to its RES capabilities during the last fiscal year, of which only 6 percent was realized.
During the current fiscal year, Iran hasn’t inaugurated any new RES projects. Nonetheless, according to the Energy Ministry’s announcement, additional 690 MW RES will be added to the grid by the end of the current fiscal year.
Sadeghzadeh said that Iran had taken upon itself an obligation to generate 5GW RES in five years; moreover, some of the facilities as well as a 20-year purchase guarantee were already offered for development to the foreign and local companies.
Deputy Minister did not however mention the cost of producing RES energy in the oil-rich Iran, but stated that the cost of thermal power generated electricity is at 12 cents per one kWh.
Iran sells the power to domestic clients at 1.5 cents/Kwh, while exports it at the of price 10 cents/kWh. Iran’s thermal power plants, with 34 percent efficiency, generate above 80 percent of the country’s power.
According to the official statistics of the Energy Ministry, Iranians had consumed 241 TWh of electricity during the last fiscal year (ended on March 20, 2017), of which the share of housing, agriculture and industrial sectors was 33.2 percent, 15.8 percent and 31.9 percent respectively.
Iran exported 6.5 TWh and imported 4.336 TWh during the last fiscal year.
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, official statistics, published by Energy Ministry in 2016