Close to $467 million will be allocated for construction of two power plants in Sirjan in Kerman Province by the Bank of Industry and Mine (BIM), Ali Ashraf Afkhami, the bank’s managing director said, IRNA reported on Saturday.
“Kahnooj and Kermanian power plants will be built with an estimated $250 and $217 million investment respectively,” Afkhami said, underlining BIM commitment to energy projects.
Afkhami reiterated the BIM concluded studies on a desalination project in the Persian Gulf in the past year, although the project is not a priority for the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI). BIM has approved funding of two desalination plants in the Persian Gulf region with approximately 150,000 and 100,000 sq. meters of water per day. The units will be established at a cost of more than $217 million.
Iran has turned to developing desalination plants, among other solutions, to address the nationwide water crisis in the past few years. The country has an annual average precipitation of 252 millimeters, which is approximately one third of the global average. In addition, dams on average are operating with less than 50 percent of their overall capacity.
Small desalination plants have been launched by private firms in the coastal regions off the Persian Gulf in recent years, such as a solar powered desalination pilot project that was initiated in southern Hormozgan Province in December. However, desalination projects in Iran are overly dependent on fossil fuels to run their machinery and equipment.
