While the word “nuclear power” tends to crop up when speaking about Iran, it could soon be “renewable energy” instead. Year on year Iran has increased its output generated from wind power and to date, it’s the sole country producing wind turbines in the Middle East. While apparently shunned by most of the Governments of the Western world Iran is a member of the Global Wind Energy Council. Iran recently announced it will launch a tender for the right to design, build and operate the three new wind power plants, hoping to attract private investors.
Each one will be between 200-350 MW each. It is not been said what the timetable for the development will be but Iran aims to generate 1.5% of its energy from renewables by 2016, an increase of 50% from now. To help generate interest and fund this deployment, the government have announced a sharp increase in power purchase tariffs from IRR 1,300 (EUR 0.04) to IRR 4,000 (EUR 0.12) per kilowatt-hour.
Most of the 120MW of wind power that exists in Iran is powered by turbines based on the Vestas 660kW machines, elements of which are produced locally under license by the Sadid Industrial Group. Iran’s MAPNA industrial Group said it planned to manufacture 2.5MW turbines by adapting the technology. Iran wants to be a lead country in the Middle East and prepare for a time when the oil runs out. Thus it is using its technicians and scientists to become a leader in the area on renewable energy. This has been made difficult because of external sanctions from many other Governments and has slowed down foreign investment and the development of renewable energy. Below is the wind farm outside the town of Manjil.
But not all countries shun Iran: It currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan (including the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic), Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. Iran wants to become a major regional exporter of electricity and so far has attracted more than $1.1 billion in investments for the construction of the three new power plants.
