Members of Iran’s High Council of Economic Coordination on Saturday allowed the allocation of the forex loans to the country’s Energy Ministry for the purpose of importing equipment needed to set up new solar farms.
The Council, which includes heads of Iran's three branches of government and is the country's top economic policy body, said the loans would be used for bringing on line some 7 gigawatts (GW) of new solar energy capacity in Iran.
State and private banks in the country will pay the loans to importers of solar power plant equipment, and Iran’s central bank would vet the applicants, the Council said.
The decision is the latest to come from the Iranian government’s efforts to increase the share of renewables in the country’s electricity mix.
The efforts are meant to offset electricity production issues caused by fuel shortages in Iran’s thermal power plants.
The Iranian government announced in January that the banking system in the country will offer up to $5 billion worth of easy loans to builders of renewable power plants in the next four years, using finances made available by the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said on Saturday that the capacity of the Iranian solar sector had nearly doubled in the past seven months.
He did not elaborate on details, but recent figures by Iran’s state electricity company show that renewables are currently responsible for only 1.8% of the country’s total power generation capacity of 94.5 GW.
Press TV