Iran’s biggest solar power plant comes on stream

[New]

Iran officially inaugurated the country's biggest solar power plant on August 27 - Malard - which is located in Central Alborz province, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported.

Vice President Mohammad Shariatmadari attended the inauguration ceremony.

The facility has the capacity to produce 514 kilowatt hours of electricity, which is two times more that the capacity of the country's second biggest solar plant. Shiraz solar power plant's production capacity is 250 kilowatt hours.

Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian previously said that the country will allocate loans equal to half of the cost of constructing renewable power plants to the private sector.

The managing director of Tehran Regional Electric Company, Seyed Zaman Hosseini, said on May 19 that Iran plans to construct some solar panels with the capacity to produce 485 megawatt of electricity.

"Developing renewable energy especially solar energy is the main priority of the country," he said.

"Iran has a great potential for solar energy," he said, explaining that Turkey's solar power generation capacity is currently 82 times more than that of Iran.

The Managing Director of Iran Power Generation Transmission & Distribution Management Company (TAVANIR) Homayoun Haeri said in November that Iran is now the world's 14th biggest owner of solar power plants.

"The country's total potential for producing solar and wind energy is estimated to be around 40 million and 100,000 megawatt hours," he said.

Iran's Deputy Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian said on Feb. 26 that the country's budget envisages investing 120 trillion rials (some $4 billion based on the exchange rate of USD at the free market) in the renewable energy in the current year.

"The mentioned amount would be invested in different projects such as construction of new power plants, optimizing existing power plants, and optimizing consumption," Falahatian said.

"In the past six months the ministry has signed 100 trillion rials worth of contracts with the private sector for construction of solar and wind power plants," he said.

The country's power generation capacity is currently over 70 gigawatts.

Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.

Iran seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity and has attracted more than $1.1 billion in investments for the construction of three new power plants.

 

[That Guy]

Good, clean energy is the future. Pakistan is finally starting to realize it.

 

[New]

Pakistan is finally starting to realize it

May you name, some of the Pakistan's ongoing projects on renewable generation?

 

[That Guy]

May you name, some of the Pakistan's ongoing projects on renewable generation?

Pakistan’s First Solar Power Park Inaugurated, Will Be One Of The Biggest In World After Completion | CleanTechnica

 

[HariPrasad]

Good, clean energy is the future. Pakistan is finally starting to realize it.

But the capital cost is too high. Not good for Pakistan.

 

[That Guy]

But the capital cost is too high. Not good for Pakistan.

The idea is pay now so that you don't have to pay later. Besides, the tech is getting surprisingly cheap, and it's much cheaper than setting up new energy plants such as nuclear, thermal or coal.

 

[New]

But the capital cost is too high. Not good for Pakistan

Renewable generation is not just an option anymore, it is a must. There were a reason why oil price was forced to around 100$ per barrel from 10 $ in 2000 to 2003, US was trying to make renewable generation a cost effective option for private section.
In 20 to 30 years from now, the lack of fossil resources beside the world wide restrictions on CO2 generation, would leave no choice other than renewable and to some extant nuclear generation.

Pakistan’s First Solar Power Park Inaugurated, Will Be One Of The Biggest In World After Completion | CleanTechnica

Vow, 1000 MW and 1500 MW !!!
Do you have any photos from the current status of the constructions in this field?

 

[Hack-Hook]

Good but it seems to be a photoelectric power planet , but if they invested in a photo-thermal power planet it was more cost benefit.

 

[haman10]

its really interesting how iran is investing in this area while we can produce extremely huge amounts of electricity with gas (fossil fuel) power plants and a thermal station besides it .

@New why are we doing this in the current economic situation ? i mean its not cost-benefit at all , besides gas turbines and thermal stations are not so toxic , r they ?

 

[New]

Good but it seems to be a photoelectric power planet , but if they invested in a photo-thermal power planet it was more cost benefit.

Shiraz 250 kWh power plant is a photo thermal, and I guess this one is either.

 

[New]

its really interesting how iran is investing in this area while we can produce extremely huge amounts of electricity with gas (fossil fuel) power plants and a thermal station besides it .

@New why are we doing this in the current economic situation ? i mean its not cost-benefit at all , besides gas turbines and thermal stations are not so toxic , r they ?

Dude, Gas power plant might be different from fossil fueled ones, a coal power plant is a fossil fueled generation plant but is not a gas power plant.
Gas generation power plants are very rare world wide (they are commonly used in countries with high reserves of natural gas) , first of all they have a very low efficiency factor, something around 20 to 30 percent, hence usually they are transformed into a combined cycle power plant, where the outlet heated gas from the gas turbines are used to boil water for a steam unit. using this method the whole system's efficiency can hardly reach 40 to 45%.
These units (gas generations) are usually build in small scales, and although they have a lower capital cost but their variable cost per kWh of production is higher than others, considering such facts these units are not suitable to provide the basic load demand and they are usually used to meet the peak demands.
Beside all these, there are other problems for a gas power plant, like, problems in transporting fuel, lack of fuel in cold seasons, and many more.
It's a long story dude, and as I said before, moving into renewable generation is not an option any more, it is a must.

PS: As this is a military forum it might be interesting to mention that, small distributed generations (DG) like renewables are far more better strategically and defensively than localized big traditional units, you know, in future wars big power plants are among the first targets to be destroyed.

 

[haman10]

Dude, Gas power plant might be different from fossil fueled ones, a coal power plant is a fossil fueled generation plant but is not a gas power plant.
Gas generation power plants are very rare world wide (they are commonly used in countries with high reserves of natural gas) , first of all they have a very low efficiency factor, something around 20 to 30 percent, hence usually they are transformed into a combined cycle power plant, where the outlet heated gas from the gas turbines are used to boil water for a steam unit. using this method the whole system's efficiency can hardly reach 40 to 45%.
These units (gas generations) are usually build in small scales, and although they have a lower capital cost but their variable cost per kWh of production is higher than others, considering such facts these units are not suitable to provide the basic load demand and they are usually used to meet the peak demands.
Beside all these, there are other problems for a gas power plant, like, problems in transporting fuel, lack of fuel in cold seasons, and many more.
It's a long story dude, and as I said before, moving into renewable generation is not an option any more, it is a must.

Tnx for the info and your time

 

[rmi5]

Dude, Gas power plant might be different from fossil fueled ones, a coal power plant is a fossil fueled generation plant but is not a gas power plant.
Gas generation power plants are very rare world wide (they are commonly used in countries with high reserves of natural gas) , first of all they have a very low efficiency factor, something around 20 to 30 percent, hence usually they are transformed into a combined cycle power plant, where the outlet heated gas from the gas turbines are used to boil water for a steam unit. using this method the whole system's efficiency can hardly reach 40 to 45%.
These units (gas generations) are usually build in small scales, and although they have a lower capital cost but their variable cost per kWh of production is higher than others, considering such facts these units are not suitable to provide the basic load demand and they are usually used to meet the peak demands.
Beside all these, there are other problems for a gas power plant, like, problems in transporting fuel, lack of fuel in cold seasons, and many more.
It's a long story dude, and as I said before, moving into renewable generation is not an option any more, it is a must.

PS: As this is a military forum it might be interesting to mention that, small distributed generations (DG) like renewables are far more better strategically and defensively than localized big traditional units, you know, in future wars big power plants are among the first targets to be destroyed.

That's right. Just a few points. Gas generation plants are not rare, since many countries in the world have gas resources. BTW, they have an advantage which is they can quickly, in less than 15 minutes, start to generate power and be connected to the line, while it takes much more time, maybe an hour, for steam turbines power generators, to start and connect to the line. So, gas generation power plants are suitable for countries in which their load is changing a lot, and their peak power is much different from the demanded power in the rest of hours of the day. Iran also has this condition as you know.
Another problem about solar plants is that their most generated power output occurs in hours(after the noon) outside of the electricity peak demands, which occurs around sunsets in Iran.
Also, gas generation plants are dirt cheap to be built

 

[New]

@rmi5 I don't know why, but somehow I had this feeling that your major field is electronics, but your understanding of power systems is admirable too.

they have an advantage which is they can quickly, in less than 15 minutes, start to generate power and be connected to the line, while it takes much more time, maybe an hour, for steam turbines power generators, to start and connect to the line

Ya, they are called fast response units, and they enjoy a very good ramp rate, hence they are usually used as primary frequency regulation reserves, especially in a deregulated environment.

So, gas generation power plants are suitable for countries in which their load is changing a lot

That's true, these fast response units are vital for power systems with lower load factors, but many countries use hydro power plants to do the job instead of Gas power plants.

Another problem about solar plants is that their most generated power output occurs in hours(after the noon) outside of the electricity peak demands, which occurs around sunsets in Iran.

That's for sure is an unsolved problem with solar plants for now, but along side expensive batteries there has been represented some interesting methods to reserve their energy, like chemical methods or methods like reserving energy in the form of heat in water tanks, etc ...

 

[rmi5]

@rmi5 I don't know why, but somehow I had this feeling that your major field is electronics, but your understanding of power systems is admirable too.

Thanks, Yes, my major is electronics.

Ya, they are called fast response units, and they enjoy a very good ramp rate, hence they are usually used as primary frequency regulation reserves, especially in a deregulated environment.

That's true, these fast response units are vital for power systems with lower load factors, but many countries use hydro power plants to do the job instead of Gas power plants.

Yes, As I have noticed in USA, they have tons of hydro plants, in which some of them are even really small, but they serve this job very well. Unfortunately, Iran is located in an arid, and semi-arid region, and except for Khuzistan, and its close regions and South Caspian region, there are less opportunities to build hydro plants.

That's for sure is an unsolved problem with solar plants for now, but along side expensive batteries there has been represented some interesting methods to reserve their energy, like chemical methods or methods like reserving energy in the form of heat in water tanks, etc ...

There is also some interesting project in Siyah-Bisheh, in which they pump water to the upper dam in low demand hours and then allow water to come from the upper dam to the lower dam to generate power in peak hours. It is also a good method.