A 1-megawatt solar power plant and 52 small-scale photovoltaic systems were launched at the weekend in Bardsir, Kerman Province.
The plant was built by a private company in nine months at a cost of $600,000, deputy energy minister, Mohammad Sadeqzadeh, said.
Currently, five solar plants in the province produce 33 MW of electricity.
Located in southeast of the country, Kerman is the largest province in Iran. Having a dry climate, it has sufficient solar radiation and in recent years many solar farms and rooftop photovoltaic systems have been installed there, IRNA reported.
“Four hundred small solar farms are operational in the province and construction of 485 others is underway,” Sadeqzadeh said, noting that two 10 MW solar farms will be inaugurated by the end of the current fiscal in March.
Of the total 82,000 MW national capacity 670 MW comes from renewables.
Sadeqzadeh said renewable capacity was 250 MW two years ago, doubled last year and is expected to reach 1,000 MW by the yearend.
“There are 2,000 small rooftop PV systems operating in the rural and underprivileged regions in the country. According to the ministry’s plans this number will reach 5,000 in the not too distant future.”
Green energy status in Iran shows 42% renewable output is from solar power, 41% wind power, 13% small hydroelectric plants, 2% geothermal and 2% biomass.
Green energy status in Iran shows 42% renewable output is from solar power, 41% wind power, 13% small hydroelectric plants, 2% geothermal and 2% biomass
Wind, solar, and hydroelectric systems generate electricity with no associated air pollution emissions. Geothermal and biomass systems emit some air pollutants but total air emissions are generally much lower compared to gas-fired power plants.
“Burning fossil fuel creates about 800 grams of carbon dioxide and other hazardous gasses per kilowatt-hour. Solar and wind energies do not have any environmental pollution,” the senior official said.
The government expects to increase nominal PV capacity to 5,000 MW by 2022.
Besides reducing environmental pollution, solar energy will decrease production costs compared to the construction of thermal power plants that have long drawn the ire of environmentalists and climate change activists around the globe.
World Market
Global funding for clean-energy projects sagged in 2018 after China’s decision to curb subsidies dragged down installations in the world’s biggest solar market.
Investment in wind and solar energy, along with technologies like smart power meters, reached $332.1 billion last year, down 8% from 2017, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
China was again the biggest clean-energy spender at $100 billion, but that was down 32% from the 2017 record. A 53% drop in Chinese solar investment was a key driver in the worldwide decline.
However, the top line number only tells part of the story. While global solar spending fell 24%, developers took advantage of lower costs to boost installations to about 109 gigawatts in 2018 from from 99 gigawatts the prior year.
The cost of installing 1MW of photovoltaic capacity fell 12% in 2018 as manufacturers slashed prices in the face of a module glut that was aggravated by China’s decision to cut solar subsidies.
Offshore wind attracted $25.7 billion in 2018, up 14% from the prior year. Offshore wind projects financed in Europe included the $3.3 billion, 950-megawatt Moray Firth East array in the North Sea, along with 13 Chinese offshore farms for a total of about $11.4 billion. Money committed to wind energy, smart meters and electric vehicles all increased.
The US was the second-biggest market for clean-energy investing with $64.2 billion, up 12%. Developers there have rushed to finance wind and solar projects to take advantage of US tax credits before they expire early next decade.
Europe’s clean energy investment jumped 27% to $74.5 billion. Project developers in Europe and the US benefited from a craving for renewable-energy power-purchase agreements by large energy users like Facebook Inc., and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
