Financial Tribune:

As the world moves deeper into the energy transition, electricity is rapidly gaining a larger share in the global energy mix. According to international projections, global power demand is expected to rise by 20% by 2030 and to double by 2050, with nearly two-thirds of that growth met by renewable sources, particularly wind and solar. Yet Iran, despite its vast natural potential, continues to lag behind this global shift, facing structural, financial, and policy-related obstacles in developing clean energy.

Hashim Oraee, professor at Sharif University of Technology and head of the Energy Scientific Associations Union of Iran, in an interview with IRNA argued,” While renewable energy development is no longer optional, Iran’s current approach remains unbalanced.”

Wind and solar now account for more than 98% of renewable electricity additions worldwide due to their economic advantages and Iran also enjoys strong solar radiation and favorable wind corridors. However, renewables currently supply less than one percent of Iran’s total electricity consumption (3000 megawatts), underscoring how marginal their contribution remains.

Ambition Over Practicality

Government targets, Oraee noted, risk prioritizing ambition over practicality. Officials have repeatedly pledged to add 30,000 megawatts of renewable capacity by the end of the current administration, while separately planning 20,000 megawatts of nuclear power by 2041. Yet Iran lacks a coherent, realistic energy mix strategy built around its financial and technical constraints. Even the frequently cited goal of installing 10,000 megawatts of solar capacity by next summer would increase national electricity supply by only about 4.7%—roughly equal to annual growth in demand—meaning it would do little to resolve Iran’s chronic power imbalance.

A key challenge lies in intermittency. Solar generation peaks during daytime hours, while electricity demand is not flexible enough to follow production cycles.

Globally, this mismatch is addressed through large-scale battery storage, but costs remain prohibitive for Iran. The cost of building one megawatt of solar capacity currently stands at about 30 billion tomans ($246,000) without battery storage, rising to 110 billion tomans ($902,000) when batteries are included. Meeting the 10,000-megawatt target would therefore require roughly 300 trillion tomans ($2.46 billion) without batteries and 1.1 quadrillion tomans ($9.02 billion) with storage—figures that far exceed Iran’s total development budget of around 600 trillion tomans ($4.92 billion) for the current fiscal year. 

Go to link