Iran plans to add some 100 megawatts of renewable power to its total production capacity by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2017), the energy minister said on Monday.
“Of the volume, 70 MW are to be generated by photovoltaic technology,” Hamid Chitchian was also quoted as saying by IRNA at the opening ceremony of the Third International Conference and Exhibition on Solar Energy (ICESE-2016) in Tehran.
Chitchian did not provide further information on the plan. He noted that the Energy Ministry has devised plans to increase the country’s renewable power generation to 1,000 MW in its long-term cooperation with the private sector.
Iran declared a commitment to produce at least 7,500 MW from renewable power plants by 2030, for which an investment of $12 billion must be made, in the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Paris last December.
“In 2015, the global renewable energy industry boosted total capacity to 147,000 MW, which is twice Iran’s total capacity that amounts to about 75,000 MW,” he said.
According to Chitchian, 28 years ago, Iran was the sole country in the Middle East to establish a company for producing crystal silicon, which is used in manufacturing photovoltaic solar panels.
“Unfortunately, the photovoltaic solar energy’s progress has been too slow in the past decades, but the industry can mark a turning point in the current year,” he added.
