S. Khorasan Wind Farm Project Gains Impetus

EghtesadOnline: More turbines are being hauled to wrap up construction of the Sarbisheh Wind Power Plant in Doreh rural district in South Khorasan Province, the provincial governor said.

News ID: ۷۵۰۵۲۵

25 July 2020

“Of the total 20 wind turbines, five have been installed and the rest have either arrived or are being moved to the site,” Mohammad Mohammadi was quoted as saying by IRNA.

The 50-megawatt wind farm, being built by Mapna, Iran's top engineering and energy enterprise, will have 20 modern turbines of 2.5 MW each and a permanent magnet direct-drive system.

The plant is being built over 22 hectares, is estimated to cost $82 million and come on line in 2021.

“Not only will the plant help stabilize power supply in the region but also help lift economic growth in the underprivileged area.”

The governor said if all goes well more power would be exported to neighboring states namely Afghanistan. Iran sells close to 200,000 kilowatts of power to Afghanistan a day.

Referring to domestically-made parts and equipment (under license of German industrial giant Siemens), Mohammadi noted that each turbine’s tower is 85 meters high. The length of each blade is 50 meters and one turbine weighs 11 tons.

The nacelle, which contains the generator component, weighs 90 tons. Smart turbines rotate at a speed of 11 revolutions per second. They start to rotate at a minimum speed of 3.5 rps and stop working automatically when the wind speed reaches 25 rps.

Mapna is a group of companies involved in the development and execution of thermal and renewable power plants, oil & gas, railway transport and other industrial projects.

The company has built two wind farms in Aqkand village, East Azerbaijan Province (2019) and in Siyahpoosh region in Qazvin Province (2018).

In related news, IRNA quoted Mohammad Hassan Motevallizadeh, managing director of Iran Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Management Company (Tavanir), as saying that a 50-megawatt wind farm in Sistan-Baluchestan Province will come online in autumn.

"With a 400 kV transmission line, the first large-scale wind farm in the southeastern province will be launched by September.”

A 25-kilometer transmission line will connect turbines of the wind farm to the national grid.

Located in the Mil-e-Nader village in Zabol City, the farm will have 20 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2.5 MW, manufactured by Mapna.

Huge Potential

With abundance of wind, Zabol has huge potential for producing impressive volumes of wind power. The city is near the Afghan border and if electricity output increases in the region, the neighbor would receive higher volumes of electricity from Iran.

Northern areas of the underdeveloped Sistan-Baluchestan Province are suitable for large wind farms.

Despite the advantages, there is only one small-scale wind turbine in the region and most of the province's electricity comes from other provinces.

According to Energy Minster Reza Ardakanian, Iran is taking steps toward boosting electrical power through renewables. The nation has acquired technical knowhow and capacity to manufacture almost all the equipment needed for producing  wind power.

Iran's installed power production capacity is around 60,000 MW, but output from renewables is barely 1.5% or 900 MW (44% from solar, 40% wind power, 13% small hydroelectric plants, 2% geothermal and 1% biomass).

Hydroelectric, nuclear and natural gas plants need high volumes of water for cooling, which means that drought and heat waves can put electricity generation at greater risk. Wind and photovoltaic systems do not require water to produce power.

The gradual expansion of green energy since 2009 has helped Iran save close to 800 million liters of water in 11 years.

Over the last decade close to 3.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity was generated from renewable sources like wind farms and photovoltaic (PV) stations.