TEHRAN - Iran’s first geothermal power plant, with the primary electricity generation capacity of five megawatts (MW), is going to go operational before the next Iranian calendar year’s summer peak consumption period (summer starts on June 22), an official with the Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) announced.

According to Hamidreza Azimi, the project is mainly completed and the only remaining part is related to the washing of the power plant’s steam wells for which the relevant contract has been concluded and the selected contractor has started the process of equipping the workshop, the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven reported.

According to the plan, the equipment related to the washing of the power plant’s wells will enter the workshop within the next month and the operations related to this section will be carried out within 45 days so that the process of the power plant’s synchronization would be started, Azimi explained.

Located in Meshgin Shahr County in the northwestern Ardebil province, the country’s first geothermal power plant is being constructed by TPPH.

Back in October 2020, Deputy Energy Minister Homayoun Haeri had put the project’s physical progress at 71 percent, saying: "[implementation of] This project was put on the agenda in order to evaluate and exploit the geological resources in the northwest of Sabalan while indigenizing the technical knowledge of design, construction, and commissioning of geothermal power plants, as well as capacity building and empowerment of skilled manpower."

The first stage of the plant development is going to feature a five MW turbine, while a total of 50 MW is targeted to be reached at later stages.

The power plant is being built at the foot of Mount Sabalan, about 85 km northwest of Ardebil. The current investment is reported at around $40.4 million.

Geothermal power refers to the use of underground hot steam to drive turbines which in turn generate electricity. It is cheaper and more reliable than other renewable energy sources, such as thermal or hydropower.

Greenhouse gas emissions in geothermal power plants are a small fraction of those produced in gas-powered stations and even far less in coal-powered facilities.

Besides power generation, geothermal energy will be used for heating purposes in the region’s harsh winters and cooling in the summer.

EF/MA