“Manufactured by Mapna Company, the turbine was placed in the farm after bad weather and strong winds, known as the 120-day wind” hampered work, Bargh News quoted Mandana Zanganeh as saying.
Winds blow from end of May to late September in the east and southeast of the Iranian Plateau, particularly in Sistan-Baluchestan. Typical wind speed is 30-40 kilometers per hour, but occasionally exceeds 100-110 km, and when the winds start blowing work is disrupted making it impossible to install the turbines.
Under construction on 20 hectares, the wind farm is located in the Mil-e-Nader village in Zabol County. It is the first large wind farm in the southeastern region.
Upon completion, it will have a total capacity of 50 MW, with 20 wind turbines each with a capacity of 2.5 MW. The project is expected to cost $70 million and be completed by March 2021, she added.
Drawing largely on domestic expertise, Mapna is the largest manufacturer of wind turbines in Iran. It is a leading company in wind power generation and expansion with wind farms producing 105 MW in Qazvin and East Azarbaijan provinces.
Due to the infrastructure built by the government in the region, including a 400 kV substation and 25 kilometers of transmission lines linking the plant to the national grid, conditions are appropriate for investment in the sector and more wind power plants are planned.
A 1 MW wind power can produce up to 3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. When operational, Mil-e-Nader farm will generate up to 150 million kilo-watt hours per annum.
With abundance of wind, Zabol has huge potential for producing high volumes of energy using wind turbines. The city is near the Afghan border and if electricity output increases it can be exported to neighbors.
Northern areas of the underdeveloped Sistan-Baluchestan Province are suitable for large wind farms. Despite the advantages, there is only one small wind turbine in the region.
Installed national power production capacity has reached 84,500 MW, but output from renewables is 1%. The share of renewables is less than 1,000 MW and there are increasing calls for moving faster towards eco-friendly energy as climate change takes a toll.
About 60.4 gigawatts of wind energy capacity was installed globally in 2019, a 19% increase from 2018.
Total capacity for wind energy globally was over 651 GW at the end of 2019. China and the US were the world’s largest onshore wind markets, together accounting for more than 60% of new capacity last year.
The year 2020 was expected to be a record year for wind energy, with Global Wind Energy Council forecasting 76 GW of new capacity. However, as the sector suffers from the Covid-19 pandemic, wind energy projects have been delayed.