Jan 7 2011
Damghan, Semnan province in Iran will soon have its first ever privately built wind and solar power plant. The power plant called Ghadir will be constructed over an area of 1,200 hectares at a cost of around $4.5 billion.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) contracted with a Danish company, the 1,000 MW plant will be built in 10 phases and each phase will have a production capability of 100 MW.
Ghadir has unveiled its plans to launch the Phase Zero of the power plant in the first week of January with a production capability of 55 kW. The power generated in this phase will be linked to the grid. The Phase one construction of the plant is expected to commence soon. The proposed plant is anticipated to generate over 3,000 direct and indirect job opportunities in the region.
Currently Iran leads the countries in the Middle East in solar as well as wind power generation. The country presently manufactures 660 kW wind turbines designed and built by local engineers. For producing wind turbines, the country imports some of the raw materials and few electronic parts. In addition to the low level production activities, the wind industry of the country is also involved in other wind energy associated works such as research on pilot projects, performing feasibility studies for installing wind turbines, designing and installing wind power plants, and repairing wind power plants.
Iran is a member of the Global Wind Energy Council. A private research performed by a domestic consulting company indicates that the country has the potential to produce over 40,000 MW of clean wind energy. Currently the country has received applications from private investors to install 800 MW wind power generation plants.
Source: http://www.mfa.gov.ir/