TEHRAN- Iranian Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian said that the development of renewable power plants in the country is a special priority in the present Iranian calendar year (began on March 21).

“We have tried to have a noticeable leap in the renewable field”, the minister stressed.

Emphasizing that due to the limitations in the field of fuel supply and also the lack of water resources in the country, the development of renewable power plants is a special priority, he said: “We planned to add 10,000 megawatts to the capacity of power generation from renewables in four years.”

Some noticeable part of the mentioned capacity will be created by the solar farms and some part by the wind farms, the minister said, adding that planning in this due has been done over the past six months and a noticeable number of investors have signed contracts in this regard.

In early January, the Energy Ministry and some of the country’s private contractors signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) for cooperation in the construction of renewable power plants to generate 10,000 megawatts (10 gigawatts) of electricity across Iran.

The MOUs were signed following the Energy Ministry’s public call for the contribution of private companies in a project for developing renewable power plants in the country.

Speaking in the signing ceremony, energy minister said: “When the private sector invests in this industry [the renewables], the government is obliged to return the equivalent of the investment plus its interests to the investor.”

Mehrabian noted that the government has allocated over 30 trillion rials (about $105.4 million) for the development of renewables in the budget bill for the present Iranian calendar year, saying that it is an unprecedented budget in this area.

MA/MA