Iran to build 5.2 GW of coal power plants until 2041

The CEO of Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) said on Wednesday that the country has a proven thermal coal reserve of 500 million metric tons (mt), which it can use as feedstock for 30 years in power plants with 5 GW of production capacity.

Abolfazl Asgari said that Iran’s Energy Balance Roadmap has stipulated that the country should have 5.2 GW of coal power plants by 2041.

Asgari made the remarks in a ceremony where he and other senior energy officials awarded a contract for the construction of a 0.65 GW coal power plant in the city of Tabas in eastern Iran.

Tabas, located in the province of South Khorasan at the edge of Iran’s Kavir Desert, is home to more than 90% of the country’s coal reserves.

The TPPH hopes the first phase of the coal power plant in Tabas, which will rely on feedstock from Mazino, a very large coal mine in the region, would come on line by 2029, using more than 4 million mt per year of coal from the mine.

Despite having some 1.2 billion mt of coal reserves, the share of the fuel in Iran’s electricity generation is almost zero. That comes as coal is responsible for nearly a third of global electricity production.

Iran has signed the Paris climate agreement, which stipulates that countries should gradually phase out the use of fossil fuels.

However, the Iranian parliament has yet to approve the agreement as people are concerned about its long-term implications for the country’s energy security.

Iran relies on natural gas for 90% of its electricity production. However, power plants are strained in cold months of the year when they receive lower gas supplies because of rising demand for heating in the country./isna