The construction of Iran’s first geothermal power plant in Meshkinshahr, Ardabil Province, has gained momentum as obstacles hampering the project, including financial disputes between the Energy Ministry and the project contractor, are addressed, a deputy energy minister said.
"The 50-megawatt station was to go on stream last year, but the contractor stepped back due to financial disagreements with the employer [Energy Ministry]," Homayoun Haeri was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The plant is now expected to be synchronized with the national power grid in August when summer demand peaks.
Eleven wells have been drilled at the site near Meshkinshahr at a depth of 3,200 meters and special turbines are being installed for power generation, Haeri said.
More than $40 million has been invested so far in the venture over six years and almost 90% of the equipment, including turbines and generators, have been purchased and delivered.
The official noted that drilling wells by the National Iranian Drilling Company shows Iran does not need foreign knowhow from Iceland and the Philippines for such operations.
Geothermal power plants use steam from reservoirs of hot water hundreds of meters below the Earth's surface. The steam rotates a turbine that activates a generator that produces electricity.
The station is located on the heights of the volcanic Sabalan Mountain in the geothermal-rich Ardabil region, which attracts millions of tourists every year for its famed hot springs, believed to have health benefits.
Unlike thermal units that use fossil fuel and are harmful to the environment, geothermal plants produce less emission.
Turkey, one of the leading countries in the region in the geothermal industry, is planning to more than quadruple its installed capacity to 2,500 MW by 2023 from the current 620 MW.
Iran's investment in other forms of power plants, especially thermal power stations, over four decades were made at the expense of renewables, which hardly account for 980 MW of the total installed capacity at around 85 gigawatts.
Mafia-Like Syndicate
Hashem Oraei, a lecturer at the prestigious Sharif University of Technology, says that the mafia-like syndicate that controls thermal power plants has created conditions in which Iran continues to depend largely on fossil fuel-based power.
“Despite the huge potential of renewables, including geothermal, solar and wind, the development of renewable energy projects is seriously impaired,” Oraei complained.
The university instructor noted that installed capacity for renewable energy should have reached 5,000 MW by 2021, but shockingly it is below 1,000 MW and nobody dares to say why!
“It is regrettable that energy officials have done almost nothing to promote renewables in the past 40 years while billions of dollars is invested in thermal and nuclear power in the country.”
Oraei, who also heads the Renewable Energy Union, noted that although the cost of setting up solar and wind farms has been declining rapidly in the world, in Iran the situation is dire as clean energy saw no investment in the past four years.
“It simply makes no economic sense as to why the cost of generating one kilowatt of thermal power should be $600 (including cost of investments) when the same costs $750 if it comes from a wind farm,” he argued.
The unjustified and misplaced policy of investing in thermal power has given rise to a plethora of problems, one of which is that the Oil Ministry cannot supply them with enough fuel and power cuts have become a norm despite massive investment in this sector.
Oraei said that if policy and decision makers had invested in renewables there would no gas shortages nor power cuts.
“Natural gas can and should be either exported or sold to petrochemical plants to be converted into value-added instead of being burnt in thermal power stations.”
