Companies from Germany, Japan and South Korea have entered negotiations with Iran over construction of several renewable power stations, managing director of Iran Power Generation and Transmission Company (Tavanir) announced Friday.
“We have requests coming every day from different countries for investment in our renewable energy projects,” Homayoun Haeri stated, adding that Tavanir has reached initial agreement with companies from Germany, Japan and South Korea in this regard.
Haeri added that it’s possible to sign a deal, in the coming weeks, over transfer of technical knowhow from Europe for construction of renewable power stations.
Meanwhile, he said that talks are being held with four European countries over investment in Iran’s upcoming renewable energy projects, including wind and solar power plants.
At the same time, Iran plans to connect its power grid with networks of some European countries. “There is a huge potential in our electric power industry,” Haeri stated, adding that technical-level talks have commenced as to connect the country’s electricity network with that of Russia. “We aim to implement this project through neighboring countries,” he said.
Haeri said that the government plans to double the capacity of Iran’s wind and solar power generation across the country.
The official also noted that Iran is currently among major countries in the region in terms of the electricity generation capacity, although it still has a lot to do to optimize energy consumption.
There are plans for production of 5,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity using renewable energy sources until 2018. Iran currently produces 10,000 MW of electricity from hydropower plants.
Due to its geographical position, Iran enjoys enormous potential for production of different kinds of renewable energies, including geothermal, solar and wind power.
Iran seeks to gradually shift its energy consumption toward renewable resources in a bid to derive the remarkable economic benefits of the sector and tackle growing environmental problems.