Over two third of Iran’s thermal power plants are owned and operated by the country’s private sector, Press TV reported on Sunday, citing a report released by Iran’s Energy Ministry.

According to the data published on the ministry’s news portal (known as Paven), private owners are currently generating nearly 67 percent of Iran’s thermal power.

“Around 44,000 megawatts (MW) of the capacity of the thermal power plants comes from the private sector and 21,500 megawatts of this capacity is from the public sector,” the report said.

Based on the report, the government was seeking to further give up its shares in the operation and ownership of thermal power plants which account for more than 92 percent of Iran’s annual electricity generation.

It said public ownership in Iran’s thermal power will reduce to nearly 15 percent in the near future with the construction of new private plants that could generate an extra 12,800 MW of electricity each year.

The government will build its own new plants to add some 6,000 megawatts to the current output figures.

Iran’s energy ministry says the total electricity output from renewables have reached 760 megawatts.

The country’s thermal power plants hit a new record last year by generating some 287 billion megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity.

That comes as the government seeks to increase the share of electricity from renewable sources to both diversify the generation methods and to tackle pollution.

Iran is currently generating just less than one percent of its electricity, some 760 megawatts a year, from renewable sources, including from wind, solar, small hydro, recycled heat and biomass.

The ministry of energy said on Saturday that the private sector had invested some 124 trillion rials (more than $1 billion) in the renewables industry over the past years.

Iran’s current power generation capacity stands at about 81 GW of which the share of renewable power stands at nearly six percent.

Last week, Paven announced that the capacity of Iran’s renewable power plants has reached 760 MW.

As reported, a total of 115 renewable power plants were active across Iran as of July 2019 and the construction is ongoing for another 32 plants to supply an extra 380 megawatts of renewables to the national power grid.

Overall, in the next five years, Iran is aiming for a 5,000 MW increase in renewable capacity to meet growing domestic demand and expand its presence in the regional electricity market.

EF/MA