With total capacity of 3,000 megawatts, the plants are under construction in 13 provinces, the Energy Ministry news portal Paven reported Reza Ardakanian as saying.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a 7 MW solar power station in Sarbisheh, South Khorasan Province, Ardakanian said $1.75 billion has been invested by private companies and the government to build the 20 power plants.
Steam-powered plants, gas-powered stations and combined-cycle plants comprise 80.8% of the total electricity production of 81 GW, Financial Tribune reported.
Moreover, hydropower plants (14.7%), distributed generation stations (1.8%), Bushehr nuclear plant (1.3%), renewables (0.9%) and diesel (0.5%) constitute the rest of the output.
The capacity of privately-owned power plants is twice the volume produced by state-owned units.
As demand keeps rising, the government is constructing power stations to add 6,000 MW to the national grid, while the private sector is involved in building stations that will produce 13,000 MW.
Expanding Renewables
Regarding renewables Ardakanian said, “The ministry is striving to augment the role of wind and solar power in South Khorasan by 100 MW and 20 MW respectively by 2022.”
He Invited investors to invest in wind farms saying “ 30,000 MW of potential capacity has been identified for wind farms.”
To encourage private companies to invest in renewables, the ministry guarantees the purchase of electricity generated by all renewable sources for 20 ears.
Ardakanian said investors can also export their electricity based on a contract with the ministry.
Iran exports electricity to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and exchanges power with Armenia and Azerbaijan under swap deals.
Renewable sources, namely solar and wind, comprise less than 1% of the total electricity production capacity (760 MW) in the country of 80 million people.
There are 115 large-scale renewable plants and 32 are under construction.
Renewable is the least expensive option for improving and boosting access to electricity, curbing air pollution and cutting toxic carbon emissions.
According to Energy Ministry data, non-government investment in the expanding renewable sector has surpassed $1 billion.
Solar and wind account for 45% and 40% of domestic renewable power respectively.
Small-scale hydroelectric plants, waste-to-energy plants and biomass factories constitute 12%, 2% and 1% of the total renewable output respectively.