“Of the total production, 1 million MWh were consumed in the province and the balance [500,000 MWh] were supplied to Mazandaran, Ardabil, Zanjan and Qazvin,” Mohsen Babazadeh was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal.
There are 12 power stations in this northern province, two of which are combined-cycle (Paresar and Rasht) and five are hydroelectric (Talesh, Bijar, Tarik, Sefidroud and Loshan).
In addition, the province has three small-scale power plants with distributed generation systems (Gil and Caspian) and a combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Bandar Anzali Free Trade Zone.
A wind power plant operates in Manjil, 250 kilometers north of Tehran.
“The wind power plant [operating 71 wind turbines] produced 95,000 megawatt-hours of electricity in 2019, which was 71% more compared with the corresponding period of 2018 when output was 55,000 MWh,” Babazadeh said.
Wind Energy
Wind energy production, the government says, will help reduce dependence on fossil fuels as it cuts electricity generation from thermal power plants using natural gas and other fossil fuels, including the most polluting mazut.
The clean energy does not produce waste or contaminate water – a major issue given the water crisis in the country. Unlike fossil fuels and nuclear power plants, wind energy has one of the lowest water-consumption footprints, which makes it key for conserving water resources that are depleting rapidly in Iran.
Wind power is among the most efficient technology to harvest electricity in a safe and environmentally-sustainable way: it is zero emission, local and exists in abundance.
More than 200 wind turbines are operating in Gilan, Khorasan Razavi, East Azarbaijan and Qazvin provinces.
Wind energy is produced in 79 countries; 24 of them have an installed capacity of more than 1,000 MW each. In terms of megawatt accumulation, the five main markets are China, the US, Germany, Spain and India.
Gilan lies along the Caspian Sea in northern Iran and receives the highest annual rainfall – 4.5 times and 1.2 times above the national and global average respectively. This has helped the growth of lush greenery and dense forests that give the province a unique status and biodiversity. The region is visited by millions of tourists every year.