A new 2.5-megawatt photovoltaic solar farm went on stream on Friday in Garizat rural district in Taft County, Yazd Province, raising PV capacity in the desert region to more than 60 megawatts, managing director of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization said.
“As an undertaking of the private sector, the project was completed in six months at an estimated cost of $3.5 million,” Mahmoud Kamani was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal.
Spanning 5 hectares, it is designed to generate 6 million kilowatt hours of electricity per annum, he added.
According to the official, if the same amount of power were to be produced by a thermal power plant, it would annually consume at least 2 million cubic meters of natural gas, 1 million liters of water and produce 2.5 million kilograms of pollutants, including CO2 and SO2.
Elaborating on the solar farm, Kamani noted that the farm includes 7,000 PV panels and 25 inverters manufactured in SMA Solar Technology AG, a German solar energy equipment supplier.
Seven solar farms in Yazd have a total capacity of 60 MW.
An additional 20 solar projects with a total capacity of 340 MW are in different stages of construction in Yazd. The new units will be completed by 2023 at a cost of $16 million.
Yazd has the highest solar power output in the country. With 3,200 plus sunlight hours in a year, the ancient city is highly suitable for harnessing solar power as it is situated near an oasis where two deserts meet, namely Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut, the latter known as one of the hottest places on earth.
Solar radiation in Iran is estimated to be about 1,800 to 2,200 kilowatt-hours per cubic meter annually, which is higher than the global average.
Studies show renewable investments in Iran are profitable.
Therefore, the Energy Ministry plans to raise annual renewable energy output to 5,000 MW in four years with the participation of private companies.
In the first quarter of 2020, the global use of renewable energy was 1.5% higher than in Q1 of 2019, according to the International Energy Agency's recent report.
The increase was driven by a rise of about 3% in renewable electricity after more than 100 gigawatts of solar PV and about 60 GW of wind power projects were completed in 2019.
The IEA's Global Energy Review 2020 report said the share of renewables in global electricity generation jumped to nearly 28% in Q1 2020 from 26% in Q1 2019.
"Renewables are also resilient to lower electricity demand because they are generally dispatched before other electricity sources due to their low operating costs or regulations that give them priority," IEA stated.
