Iran says renewable power output hits over 3.5 TWh

Iran’s Ministry of Energy says production of renewable electricity has hit a record of more than 3.5 terawatt hours (TWh), updating previous reports on the output and detailing the share of various renewable resources.

A Wednesday report by the Ministry’s news service Paven said current output generated from renewables across Iran had topped 3.566 billion kilowatt hours, or 3.566 TWh.

The report said the increase in Iran’s renewable output had helped prevent the release of 2.461 million tons of greenhouse gases, which could have come from burning over a billion cubic meters of fossil fuels in conventional power plants, while it saved the country more than 785 million liters of water.  

It said current production accounted for nearly 54 percent of the capacity installed across Iran, which is around 761 megawatts in some 115 large-size renewable power plants and a handful of other small ones.

The report said solar and wind power accounted for 45 and 40 percent of the production, respectively, while the rest came from small hydropower plants with 12 percent, water heat recycling units with two percent and plants using biofuel to generate electricity with one percent.

It said a total of 380 renewable power plants were being constructed across Iran, including 32 large ones, adding that government investment in the sector, which employs over 42,000 people, had increased to more than $1.20 billion over the past years.

Despite huge progress made in the field of renewables, a current output of 3.5-TWh stands for a tiny portion of Iran’s total electricity production, currently at levels above 300 TWh, and thermal power remains the dominant source with over 80 percent of share in the output.

A report last week by Paven showed that Iran’s thermal electricity output had increased by 78 TWh is the past six years.