Iran is set up introduce competitive auctions to its rapidly emerging renewable energy market later this year.
According to media reports, Iran is planning its first-ever renewable energy auction later this year. Country’s energy minister recently told Bloomberg in an interview that the government expects heavy participation from private sector companies, both in Iran was well as abroad.
The minister also stated that the government plans to auction 1 GW wind energy and 3 GW solar power capacity and an estimated investment of $12 billion is expected from national and international project developers.
The Iranian government is planning to offer significant incentives to prospective project developers. Feed-in tariffs for various renewable energy technologies and projects will be offered across 12 categories. Solar power project developers will get tariffs between US¢0.010-0.16/kWh. Wind energy project developer will be offered tariffs between US¢0.11-0.14/kWh across various project sizes.
Iran aims to add about 5,000 MW of wind and solar power capacity by 2018 and an additional 2.5 GW renewable energy capacity by 2030.
A large number of foreign investors have shown interest in the Iranian renewable energy market ever since the country struck a nuclear deal. Last month, German company Planet in Green announced that is has been chosen by the Iranian government to set up 100 MW solar power project. The company has signed 20-year power purchase agreement with the Iranian renewable energy organisation.
Last year, an unnamed German company was reported to have struck a deal with the Iranian government to set up 1.25 GW solar power capacity.
Two Italian companies also announced plans to set up 100 MW solar power projects each with installed capacity of 10 MW. The entire capacity of 1 GW shall be installed over a period of 9-10 years. The total investment for the programme is expected to be around $1.5 billion.