TEHRAN – Iranian Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian said private sector contractors have inked deals with the ministry to construct several renewable power plants with a total capacity of 11,000 megawatts (MW) across the country.

Mehrabian said Iran is facing about 5,000 MW increase in electricity demand every year, so the government needs to make the necessary plans to resolve about 15,000 MW imbalance between electricity supply and demand, IRNA reported.

According to the official, in the last three years, more than 10,382 MW have been added to the country's power generation capacity, and power plants with the total capacity of 22,000 MW are also under construction across the country whose progress is between 10 and 95 percent.

Putting the country’s current electricity generation capacity at 93,000 MW, Mehrabian said that based on the seventh National Development Plan, Iran’s power generation capacity is expected to be increased to 123,000 MW within the next five years.

“In the last three years, Iran's electricity generation has grown by 45.7 terawatt hours, and this production growth has made Iran the seventh biggest electricity producer in the world,” he noted.

Based on the Energy Ministry data, renewables, currently, account for nearly seven percent of the country’s total electricity generation capacity.

Of the country’s total renewable capacity, 44 percent is the share of solar power plants while the share of wind farms stands at 40 percent and small-scalded hydropower plants generate 13 percent of the total renewable capacity.

Earlier this month, Iran's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization (SATBA) announced that Iranian renewable power plants generated over 923 Kwh of electricity since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19).

In late July, SATBA Head Mahmoud Kamani said 600 renewable power plants with a total capacity of 13,500 MW are under construction across the country and with these power plants going operational the share of renewables in Iran’s power generation will reach 15 percent.

“We hope that by implementing these power plants, the share of renewable energies in Iran's electricity production will increase to more than 15 percent in the next two years,” Kamani said.

Earlier that month, SATBA reported that the capacity of Iran's renewable power plants has reached 1,199.71 MW.

Over the past few years, the Iranian government has taken serious measures to accelerate the growth and development of renewable energies in the country.

Diversification of financing models for renewable projects, increasing the ceiling of guaranteed electricity purchase, providing the possibility of buying and selling renewable electricity in the green board of the Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) and providing the possibility of exporting renewable electricity have been the most important measures taken for this purpose.

Iranian Energy Ministry has also put it on the agenda to add 10,000 MW to the capacity of the country’s renewable power plants by the end of the current government’s administration (August 2025).

Considering the fact that the country’s renewable power generation capacity stood at about 800 MW when the current government took office in August 2021, the mentioned increase in renewable energy capacity would mean a 13-fold rise.

Back in January 2022, the Energy Ministry and some of the country’s private contractors signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) for cooperation in the construction of new renewable power plants across the country.

EF/MA