Iran renewable power output reaches 760 megawatts: Ministry

The Ministry’s news service said in a report on Saturday that a total of 115 renewable power plants were active across Iran as of July 2019, adding that construction was ongoing for another 32 plants to supply an extra 380 megawatts of renewables to the national power grid.
 
The report said more than 42,000 people were employed either in the renewable industry or in the supply chain, adding that the private sector had invested some 124 trillion rials (more than $1 billion) in the industry over the past years.
 
It said the bulk of electricity generation from renewables, around 85 percent, came from solar and wind plants, adding that biomass accounted for only once percent of the total output.
 
The report said Iran had generated nearly 3.5 billion megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy until the current summer, cutting back on some 368,000 tons of green house gases.
 
It said increased power output from renewable sources had slashed around one billion cubic meters from the country’s fossil fuel consumption and saved more than 750 million liters of water.
 
Despite operating massive hydropower infrastructures, Iran has sought to expand the renewable industry to diversify its electricity generation methods.
 
Desert regions east of the country provide huge potentials for solar power while onshore wind farms have mushroomed in northern provinces along the Caspian Sea.
 
The use of small-scale photovoltaic power stations has also been on rise over the past years to feed power to remote villages across the country.