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. For producing the same amount of power with natural gas, close to 1 billion cubic meters of the fuel would be required.
This amount -- 3.5 billion kilowatt hours -- allowed Iran to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.46 million tons, IRNA reported.
Curtailing greenhouse gas emissions to help safeguard the environment is among the major challenges nations are grappling with to different degrees, Financial Tribune reported.
Greenhouse gases are capable of trapping the earth's emitted radiation, which otherwise escapes back into space. The primary greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.
Iran's installed power capacity amounts to 85 gigawatts, of which 1 GW comes from renewable sources namely solar and wind. Moreover, new plants to generate 500 MW of solar power are under construction.
According to the state-owned Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization (Satba) electricity generated since 2009 has gradually cut reliance on fossil fuels like oil (to produce power) by 925 billion liters.
Green sector investment in Iran has surpassed $1.5 billion and created 20,000 jobs, the Energy Ministry says.
Renewables contribute to sustainable socioeconomic growth, boosting global gross domestic product growth by 1%, employing close to 29 million people and generating 15% increase in welfare, mainly through health benefits from reduced air pollution, according to the latest analysis by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).