TEHRAN - Iran’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization (SATBA) Mahmoud Kamani says the economic council of the government has approved the construction of 3,000 megawatts of wind power.
For the past year and a half, models for the construction of wind power plants along with solar power plants have been presented and discussed by the council, with a final decision made Wednesday night.
The electricity generated by the wind power plants will be purchased by the Ministry of Energy at a rate of 9.5 cents for a period of four and a half years, after which the owners of the power plants can trade it on Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX).
The statute of the self-regulatory commodity exchange stipulates that all energy carriers and energy based derivatives including oil, gas and electricity shall be listed and traded on one of the IRENEX markets.
The company says its mission is to develop a market in which trades are done under transparency, efficiency and liquidity.
According to Kamani, sites for constructing 40,000 MW of renewable capacity have been identified. In the first phase, tenders will be held for four sites in Razavi and South Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchistan and Zanjan provinces to build wind power plants.
In the next phase, tenders will be held in ten other provinces, including Kerman and Semnan, where the necessary appraisals have been completed.
The initial 3,000 MW capacity is estimated to join the national grid in five years since wind powers usually take more time to build than solar powers, Kamani said.
In the past, Iranian officials have said there is a potential to install 30,000 MW of wind power and 10,000 MW of solar power capacity in the country.
Currently, Iran has about 450 MW of wind power installed. It has also an installed capacity of about 440 MW represented by solar installations.
Iran is a signatory of the 2015 Paris climate agreement committing 195 nations to limit their carbon emissions. In its intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) in 2015, Iran committed to reducing its greenhouse gases emissions by 4% (unconditional pledge) and up to 12% (conditional on international financial and technical assistance) by 2030 compared to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario.
Before former U.S. president Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran in May 2018, the Islamic Republic expected its installed renewable capacity to grow at least sevenfold over the next five years.
However, European companies such as Norway’s Saga Energy, British firm Quercus, Dutch energy firm Global Renewables Investments (GRI) cancelled their plans to build renewable capacities worth several billion dollars in Iran.
Saga scrapped a $2.9 billion deal to install 2,380 MW in renewable capacity in the oil-producing country. Quercus had signed a deal to help build the world’s sixth-largest solar farm in central Iran with an investment of over half a billion euros. GRI planned to build up solar and wind farms that could produce up to 1,700 MW of electricity.
Energy is the most important factor in socio-economic development. The role of electricity in development of industrial infrastructures, economic development and in improvement of life styles and standards is crucial.
The emerging global approach has led policymakers to assess the different sources of energies which are safe and sustainable. Mixed energy or using a combination of different power production methods is becoming the most suitable option, in order not to depend on one resource where natural or manmade disasters pose a myriad of risks to sustainable supplies.