"Satba issues three to four permits daily for building renewable power plants," Mohammad Sadeqzadeh was also quoted as saying by ILNA on Sunday.
“For adding 5 kilowatt of renewable power capacity to the national grid, an investment of 300 million rials (roughly $7,100) is needed, which will return 8 million rials ($190) in monthly revenues,” he added.
As per the administration’s deals with private renewable investors, the Energy Ministry guarantees the purchase of the power plants’ output for 20 years, Financial Tribune reported.
The official said that private companies have invested 100 trillion rials ($2.38 billion) in the renewable power industry over the past two years.
"There are no limitations in installing solar panels in organizations and residential buildings," he noted.
Stressing that about 1,500 small renewable power plants have been launched in the country over the last two years, he said that the power plants have a life span of 30-35 years and do not require major maintenance and repair.
The official stressed that 50 industrial renewable plants have also been installed in the same period in different provinces, namely Yazd and Isfahan.
Stressing that about 46,000 people are working in the renewable sector, mostly owned by private investors, Sadeqzadeh said the sector registered a 70% growth in the last fiscal year (ended March 20).
“The Energy Ministry’s policy is to hand over all stages of renewable power production to private companies,” he said, adding that an annual average of 1 trillion rials ($24 million) have been allocated by the ministry in the past three years to pay for renewable power bills.
Seyyed Moslem Mousavi, managing director of Iran Renewable Energy Association, has told ISNA that studies show peak power consumption and peak renewable production take place simultaneously at noon and in the afternoon respectively.
“During these hours, Iranians use about 21,000 megawatts of electricity to run their cooling systems, a part of which can be provided by photovoltaic and wind power plants across the country to reduce the load and avoid outages,” he added.
Mousavi expressed optimism that the share of Iran’s renewable output in its power basket would reach 10% instead of 5% by the end of the Sixth Five-year Development Plan (2017-22).
Stressing that some thermal power plants have recently become inactive due to lack of water, Sadeqzadeh said as renewable plants do not require water for power production, they are of invaluable help to the country in the present critical conditions.