Construction of Iran's biggest photovoltaic power station will soon commence in Kerman, the managing director of Iran Power Generation Transmission & Distribution Management Company (Tavanir) announced, Mehr news agency reported.
Homayoun Haeri said that by the end of the current year (ends March 21, 2015) the electricity and renewable energy production capacity will increase two-fold.
Outlining the recent policies to increase clean electricity production capacity, Haeri noted that production of small-scale distributed energy (DG) is on the ministry's agenda.
"On that account, the operational activities for construction of small-scale distributed energy in the form of combined cycle started last month, in Zarand, Kerman Province."
The small-scale combined cycle unit is among the 10 projects Tavanir and MAPNA Group have planned to jointly construct in Zarand. It is the first small-scale DG unit which became operational last month.
"This unit is a combined cycle power generator," Haeri said. "The small-scale stations are environmentally friendly, that add value while increasing productivity."
The official noted that the capacity of small-scale units is supposed to reach 750 megawatt from the current 500 megawatt, and the 250 megawatt is being installed.
Haeri said the most important feature of the small-scale combined cycle DG units is their increased productivity (more than 48 percent), less environment pollution is another advantage, he added. "Compared with combined cycle stations of higher capacity, the pollutants produced by these small units are much less."
Currently Iran's electricity production capacity has increased to 72,000 megawatt, Haeri noted.
The capacity of renewable energy plants amount to 300 megawatt, Yousef Armoudeli, deputy energy minister and the head of the Renewable Energy Organization of Iran, said last week.
The government hopes to produce 5,000 megawatts from renewable resources within two years and plans to target rural communities who have been largely cut off from government services. Laws and incentives to encourage domestic and foreign investment in renewable energy projects in the country have been recently passed.
"While the share of renewable resources in the country’s total energy production currently stands at almost 0.5%, this is expected to reach 5 percent in the next four years," Armoudeli said.
Under President Hassan Rouhani, the government’s budget for solar projects has risen five-fold this year, to $60 million, up from just $12 million last year.
Iran’s electricity industry ranks 14th in the world and first in the Middle East in terms of power generation by with an installed power generation capacity of 67,806 megawatt.
Armoudeli said that by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2015) a total of 500 megawatts of electricity will be added into the national grid, generated by wind farms and solar plants.
Iran's biggest solar power plant was officially inaugurated on August 27 in Malard, Alborz province. The facility has the capacity to produce 514 kilowatt hours of electricity, which is two times more than the capacity of the country's second biggest solar plant in Shiraz.
