“If we deduct the hydroelectric power plants’ share from the total production, recyclable energies produce less than 0.001 of the consumption,” he added.
“We are planning to generate more power from the power plants. We hope to produce about 0.5 to 3 percent of the electricity produced in the country from the recyclable energy sources within the next 10 years,” he also noted.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahmadian said that in the last Iranian year (ending March 19), power stations throughout the country generated more than 148 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity. Iranian power stations have to boost their capacities at a rate of 3,000 megawatts per year.
“Power output was higher than what predicted in the third five-year national plan. The generation was also higher than neighbors. Demand for electricity exceeded 27,000 megawatts last year,” Ahmadian also explained.
The national demand for electricity will hit 44,000 megawatts by the end of the fourth five-year national plan (in March 2010) and the country should boost its capacity to 56,000 megawatts per hour, added Ahmadian who was visiting the geothermal power plant in the northwestern city of Meshkin Shahr.
Geothermal power generation is to extract and use part of underground magma energy in the form of steam. Aside from power generation, as the source for multipurpose heat water utilization, such as hot spring, facility gardening and melting ice on the road, geothermal heat would help the development of local communities.
RA/IS
END
MNA
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