Contract for the Construction of Iran's Largest Solar Power Plant with European Investment

The Ministry of Energy announced that the contract for the construction of the largest solar power plant in the country, with foreign investment, was signed in North Khorasan on Sunday, July 25. According to the Ministry of Energy's information website, Alireza Sabouri, CEO of the North Khorasan Electricity Distribution Company, stated that after months of efforts to remove investment barriers, the contract for the first phase of the construction of the largest solar power plant in the country, with a capacity of 30 megawatts, was finally signed with SANA (Iran's Renewable Energy Organization). Alireza Sabouri pointed out that this power plant will be built with the direct investment and participation of Switzerland and Italy, and according to the investors of this project, the execution operations will begin within the next 3 to 4 weeks. According to the report, the investment for this project is 40 million euros (44 million dollars), and a 60-hectare land on the western side of the Jajarm alumina factory, adjacent to the 400 kV substation of this city, has been designated for the construction of the project. It is planned that, except for the panels and inverters, all equipment for this power plant will be manufactured and installed in Iran. He also referred to the plan for the development of solar power plants in the province and said that the Swiss investment company has plans to construct up to 300 megawatts of power plants in the cities of Shirvan, Esfarayen, Bojnord, and Jajarm, which will be gradually put into operation. According to the latest weekly report from the Ministry of Energy, which includes statistics for the first four months of the current solar year, the total nominal capacity of electricity generation from renewable sources (wind, solar, etc.) is currently about 240 megawatts, which only accounts for a 0.3% share of the total nominal electricity generation capacity of the country. According to this report, 5 megawatts have been added to the nominal capacity of electricity generation from renewable sources this year. Meanwhile, according to the official website of Iran's Renewable Energy Organization, Iran, with over 300 sunny days in more than two-thirds of its territory and an average irradiation of 4.5 to 5.5 kilowatt-hours per square meter per day, is one of the countries with high potential in solar energy. According to the report, studies conducted by the German company 'DLR' indicate that in an area of over 2000 square kilometers, the installation of more than 60,000 megawatts of solar thermal power plants is possible. This figure is even greater than the total current practical electricity generation capacity of Iran, which is about 52,000 megawatts. Recently, Hamid Chitchian, the Minister of Energy, announced in an interview with Bloomberg that Iran intends to hold its first tender for public renewable energy projects by the end of the year. These projects could attract 12 billion dollars in investment by the time they are completed. Iran aims to launch 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy in the next five years and add another 2,500 megawatts by 2030.