Iran ramps up imports of solar equipment
Iran has ramped up its imports of solar equipment amid efforts to expand renewables capacity to respond to growing electricity demand in the country.
The Iranian Energy Ministry’s department for renewables (SATBA) said on Tuesday that it had imported solar equipment enough for the construction of 2 gigawatts (GW) of solar farms only in the past 15 days.
Fatemeh Karimi, who leads SATBA’s operations for the expansion of solar systems in government buildings, said that the government plans to immediately launch 3 GW of new renewables capacity.
Karimi said the plan includes the launch of 3-megawatt solar systems in 1,000 locations across Iran, adding that the remaining solar equipment needed for the project will arrive in the country in the coming weeks.
She said that the solar equipment imported in the past two weeks mostly included photovoltaic panels and inverters without elaborating on the origin of the imports.
Iran’s decision to accelerate imports of solar equipment comes amid efforts to expand its renewables capacity to offset electricity production issues caused by fuel shortages in the country's thermal power plants.
The country has introduced an ambitious plan to increase its renewables capacity by 25 times in three years, with authorities saying they have already approved applications by domestic and foreign investors for building 35 GW of new renewable power plants.
Reports in the past months have suggested that there has been a surge in the imports of solar equipment from China to Iran.
That comes as Iran’s Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi travelled to China in October to tout the potentials existing in the Iranian electricity generation sector.
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