Solar farms capacity to rise 4,000 MW by March 2026

TEHRAN – The capacity of Iran’s solar farms is going to increase by 4,000 megawatts (MW) by the end of the next Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2026), the country’s energy minister announced.

Abbas Ali-Abadi said that the power network of the country is large and with the annual generation and consumption capacity of about 350 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, it has technically the potential for attracting more than 30,000 megawatts of solar energy.

“We are trying to realize this potential with the cooperation of the private sector and we provide an attractive investment environment and a suitable market to attract investors to cooperate, while significant contracts have been concluded in this field since the beginning of the government”, the minister added.

He further stated that considering that the current capacity of the country’s solar power plants is 1,200 megawatts, with this increase, it is expected that this figure will reach more than 3,000 to 4,000 megawatts by next year, which is a significant figure.

As announced by an official with Iran’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization (SATBA), the capacity of Iran’s renewable power plants is going to increase by 500 megawatts (MW) by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2025).

“Considering the capacity of the new power plants under construction, the capacity of renewable power plants will increase by 500 megawatts by the end of the current year,” Ali Shabnavard, the director general of SATBA’s Office for Supervision of Construction and Production of Power Plants said.

This trend shows the serious determination of the Ministry of Energy and the government to overcome the imbalance of electricity supply and demand by the development of renewable energy in the country, he stressed.

He put the current nominal capacity of the country’s renewables at 1,371 MW, adding that just last week 53 MW was added to the capacity of the country’s renewable power plants.

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 2025.

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

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.

MA