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Iran plans tender to attract up to $12 bn in renewable energy development

Iran plans tender to attract up to $12 bn in renewable energy development View over Teheran, Iran (source: flickr/ Rafael Robles, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 3 Aug 2016

Iran plans a large utility-scale renewable energy tender, under which it hopes to draw up to $12 billion in international investment into renewable energy projects, among them geothermal.

Iran is pushing forward with ambitious renewable energy targets and plans to add up to 5,000 MW of renewable energy over the next 5 years and an additional 2,500 MW by 2030.

The country is now planning to issue its first tender for utility-scale renewable energy projects by the end of 2016. If successful, the tender could draw up to $12 billion in investment, as reported by EV Wind.

Iran is expecting that it will not use money from its oil sector, but expects funding to come from the private sector, both from Iranian and foreign companies.

Interesting enough, around 150 trade delegations from around the world have visited the country’s capital Teheran over the past 6 months.

All major international energy companies have show interest in development and an involvement in Iran. With a rather old energy sector and most plants being over 40 years old, there needs to be a lot of things to be done, both in renovations and refurbishment, but also in the development of new capacity.

With a focus on wind and solar, there is also an emphasis in biomass and geothermal electricity, which could be used in an exchange against natural gas with neighboring Armenia.

Today, around 80% of Iran’s electricity is generated by natural gas.

Source: EV Wind