Iran Plans to Boost Trifling Share of Clean Energy

Iran, a country flush with oil and gas deposits, supplies less than 1% of its total electricity demand from renewable sources.

“The share of renewables in Iran’s energy basket is 240 megawatts at present, or just 32%” from a total installed power generation capacity of 75,000 MW, Alireza Daemi, deputy energy minister for planning and economic affairs, said on Wednesday.

Daemi pointed to plans to add 5,000 MW to installed renewable capacity by 2021, the end of Iran’s sixth five-year economic development plan, hoping that power output from renewables, such as solar and wind, will rise by at least 100 MW next year, IRNA reported.

According to estimates, Iran has the potential to produce 810 MW from biofuels, 1,250 MW from geothermal energy and a staggering 140,000 MW from solar and wind power, or double the country’s total installed capacity.

“Taking into account the installed capacity of power plants with distributed generation system and combined heat and power units that produce far less pollution compared to conventional plants, Iran has a huge capacity for power generation from renewable and clean energy sources,” Daemi said.

In December 2015, 195 nations, including Iran, signed an agreement at the Paris Climate Conference to shift away from fossil fuels with a goal of limiting a rise in average global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius. Iran pledged at the Paris Climate Conference that it will curtail greenhouse gas emissions by increasing power production from renewable sources to 7,500 MW by the end of next decade.