The Iran Project
: Iran’s Energy Ministry has given its final approval for plans to launch 500 megawatts of new solar power plants as part of a campaign to increase the share of renewables in the country’s electricity mix.
Alireza Mahmoudpour, a senior SATBA official, said the visits had been carried out in five days across 10,000 kilometers of roads in the northeastern provinces of Razavi Khorasan and North Khorasan, in Yazd in central Iran, and in the province of Fars in the south of the country.
Mahmoudpour said that the 500 MW of new renewables capacity will help Iran cope with peaks of electricity demand next summer.
He said that another 1,000 MW of renewables capacity will be connected to Iran’s power grid until the summer of 2025.
The development comes amid Iran’s ongoing efforts to significantly increase its power generation from renewable sources to offset production issues caused by fuel shortages in thermal power plants.
The country has allocated some $5 billion in easy loans to builders of renewable power plants using finances made available by its sovereign wealth fund.
Iran has also allowed state companies that export commodities to use their export proceeds to import renewable power plant equipment to build electricity stations in their factories.
Iran’s Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said last month that Iran’s renewables capacity will “definitely” increase by 25 times in the next three years to reach nearly 30,000 MW.
Aliabadi said that Iran will use the funds that it normally spends on the supply of oil and gas to electricity stations to build more renewable power plants.
Reporter : Editorial of The Iran Project
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