A 50 megawatt wind farm in Aqkand City, Mianeh County, East Azarbaijan Province, was launched Wednesday.
Aqkand wind farm can generate 175,000 megawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to meet the demand of 104,000 households, the Energy Ministry news portal Paven reported.
Production of this amount of electricity in a thermal power plant would need 49 million cubic meters of natural gas and consume 38,000 cubic meters of water per year.
It also will prevent emission of over 119,000 tons of greenhouse gases and pollutants.
An undertaking of the private sector, the wind farm runs on turbines manufactured by Mapna, a group of companies involved in the development and execution of thermal and renewable power plants, oil & gas, railway transport and other industrial projects.
For decades, fossil fuels have been the main feedstock for power generation. Natural gas, diesel and mazut that run power plants inevitably produce greenhouse gases.
Renewable energy has long been advocated as an alternative to fossil fuel-induced power generation methods. Perennial sources of energy such as wind and solar do not harm the climate, and never cease to exist.
Meager Share
Despite being a member of the International Renewable Energy Agency since 2012, just about 1% of Iran’s energy basket is renewable.
Launch of the Aqkand wind farm in the northwest region increases renewable capacity to 900 MW. Total power production capacity is about 82,000 MW.
The country meets more than 80% of its electricity demand from thermal power plants that run on fossil fuels.
Energy Ministry data show Iran produced over 4.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from renewable sources since the decision in 2009 to shift focus away from fossil fuels to greener energies.
This volume of clean energy was produced from July 2009 to November 2019, which has cut the consumption of 1.25 billion cubic meters of natural gas and helped save 969 million liters of water.
Moreover, harnessing clean energy in the past nine years helped curb emission of about 3 million tons of greenhouse gases.
Figures on Iran's power sector show 42% of the renewable energies come from solar power, 41% from wind farms, 13% from small hydroelectric plants, 2% from heat recovery and 2% from biomass.
Renewable ventures are gaining popularity. With more than 300 sunny days throughout the year, Iran has huge potential to expand solar energy infrastructure.
The government as of last year has taken big steps to expand use of renewable energy.
According to Deputy Energy Minister Homayoun Haeri, production of renewable energy will reach 1,000 MW by the end of current year (March 2020), almost double the figure for last year.
The number of small-scale solar farms across the country, used by households or small industries, has increased noticeably and there are 3,500 rooftop photovoltaic stations.
