Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 12
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran has $15 billion investment opportunity in renewable energies, Iranian deputy energy minister Houshang Falahatian said.
Foreign investment as much as $30 billion is needed in Iran's water and electricity industry, Iran's Fars news agency quoted Falahatian as saying on September 12.
Any kind of cooperation with foreign countries will be dependent upon technology transfer, he noted.
"We should establish power plants with 35,000 megawatts of output. If we assume that each 1,000 megawatts costs $500 million, then we will need over $15 billion for building thermal power plants," he explained.
The same amount of investment is needed in renewable energy industries, he noted.
Iranian officials have already unveiled comprehensive plans for the production of 5,000 megawatts of electricity using renewable energy sources by 2018.
Back in January, Homayoun Haeri, director of Iran's Power Generation and Transmission Company (TAVANIR), announced that Iran seeks to double the capacity of its renewable energy.
Iran currently generates 10,000 MW of electricity from hydropower plants. The country seeks to gradually shift its energy consumption toward renewable resources.