Tehran, Iran, Sept.10
Trend:
Iran's renewable energy sector requires to attract more investment to increase power production, former head of Iran's Electricity Industry Syndicate Alireza Kolahi told Trend.
"The planed programs that were implemented were far from what was expected," he said.
"Iran's investment in producing renewable energy equipment is very limited," he said.
"Renewable energy sector practically isn't very active in the country and investment in producing equipment has not been expanding," he added.
"There are companies that are active in this field but it can not be said that it is a significant industry that one can be dependent on," Kolahi said.
"While the domestic investor is not inclined to invest in renewable energy industry, naturally foreign investor is not interested to invest either," he said.
"Increase of foreign currency rate caused the rise of costs in renewable energy projects. The equipment for energy industry is effected by foreign currency rate, be it domestic production or imports," Kolahi said.
"The costs of projects have suddenly tripled while the Ministry of Energy purchase guarantee rate has not increased and the projects have lost their economic justification," he said.
"The delayed payment of Ministry of Energy's debts is another issue that has affected the renewable energy industry, so no serious investment has appeared in the industry and we are far behind the world," he indicated.
Iran's government has been paying special attention to the country's renewable energy potential in the Sixth Development Plan(2016-2021).
The government is obligated to create necessary conditions for the private sector investments in the industry by providing incentives such as purchased guarantee of electricity and prepare the conditions for foreign investors.