Iran is developing and exporting alternative energy expertise

[Prometheus Bound]

Tehran looks to the skies for cheap power from the sun
Iran is introducing the latest solar technologies to cut its oil consumption and bring cheaper electricity to its civilians
The first domestically-made solar power plant has been inaugurated as a pilot scheme in Shiraz, Fars province, energy minister said.
Parviz Fattah told IRNA that the ministry used Iranian technology to set up the plant. According to the official, the power plant has parabolic mirrors to direct solar radiation into its solar receivers. With government support, greater investments will be made in renewable energy sources.
http://www.iran-daily.com/1387/3305/html/economy.htm#s354042

Tehran looks to the skies for cheap power from the sun
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/jan/06/alternative-energy-solar-power

12/29/08
Iran's First Solar Power Plant Inaugurated
Source: Iran Daily
The first domestically-made solar power plant has been inaugurated as a pilot scheme in Shiraz, Fars province, energy minister said.

Parviz Fattah told IRNA that the ministry used Iranian technology to set up the plant. According to the official, the power plant has parabolic mirrors to direct solar radiation into its solar receivers. With government support, greater investments will be made in renewable energy sources.
http://www.payvand.com/news/08/dec/1313.html

Iran to build wind power plant in Pakistan
Tehran Times Economic Desk
February 8, 2009

TEHRAN – The managing director of SANIR Company, affiliated to Iran’s Energy Ministry, here on Saturday announced that Iran in collaboration with a Pakistani private company will construct a 50 MW wind power plant in the form of build, own, operate (BOO) contract in Pakistan.

According to the Mehr News Agency, Reza Ebadzadeh said that in addition to the project Iran has won the tender of a $50 million 220/132 KV electricity station, and a 120 Km 220 KV power transmission line on which Iran is working.

He added that in accordance with a $65 million deal with the Ministry of Water and Power of Pakistan, Iran has vowed to develop the electricity network in Pakistan’s Gwadar Port by transmitting 100 MW electricity via Chabahar border.

Iran’s power grid to connect to Georgia, Russia

Iran’s Ministry of Energy is to promote multilateral cooperation with Armenia, Georgia, and Russia by joining the electricity transmission network of the countries.

According to IRNA, Ebadzade said that “the power grids of Iran and Armenia are already connected,” adding that “another 400 MW power transmission line will be linked between the two sides.”

Statistics show that Iran’s exchange of electricity with its neighboring countries in the last Iranian calendar year (ended March 19) touched 430 MW
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=188804

Iran president comes to Kenya for business
Monday, February 23, 2009

Power plant
And last month Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta (then the Trade minister) led a 40-member delegation to Tehran where he sought the assistance of the Iranian Government and private companies in expanding Kenya’s energy and infrastructure sectors.

Farab, an Iranian company, is behind construction work on a hydro-electric power plant along the Thika-Sagana road and a gas power plant near Mombasa.

...Already, Iran has a factory assembling tractors for Uganda, and it hopes to build a similar one in Kenya. ...Iran also has big ambitions to extend trade in its pharmaceuticals. It funds two clinics in Nairobi – one on Ngong Road and the other on Park Road – that are stocked with Iranian pharmaceuticals and are overseen by Iranian doctors...Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Thuita Mwangi...added that Iran “is one of the fastest- growing economies with huge resources which it has decided to focus into Africa. We want to take advantage of that."

One aspect of the relationship that Kenya particularly likes is that Iran tends to offer more grants than loans. The more traditional donor countries have been shifting from grants to loans in their dealings with recipient countries.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/-/1064/533332/-/item/1/-/5ewt28/-/index.html

Iran enters Tajik energy market as U.S. and Russia idle
By JOHN C.K. DALY, UPI International Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2009 (UPI) -- Iran is filling an investment gap in Tajikistan left by the United States and Russia, agreeing to spend on hydropower and other quality-of-life projects.

Iran has offered to help Tajikistan complete the construction of the 3,600 megawatt Rogun hydroelectric power station on the Vakhsh River, 70 miles east of the capital, Dushanbe. If built, it would be Central Asia's largest.

...Iran saw -- and seized -- the opportunity. During a Feb. 8 news conference in Dushanbe, Iranian Ambassador Ali Asghar Sherdust told reporters his country would assist in completing Rogun "both at the governmental level and via the private sector." Iran is also helping Tajikistan develop another hydroelectric project at Shurob.

If completed, Rogun would even allow Tajikistan to export electricity, most notably to its power-starved southern neighbor, Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan. In turn, last week Tajik President Emomalii Rahmon telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who stated that he backed Tajik initiatives on use of regional water resources.

Iran is preparing to put its cash into a "quality of life" project that Tajiks, who have suffered electricity cuts this winter of up to 14 hours, will view with gratitude.

This also contrasts with U.S. policy:

...As the United States and Russia wrangle about hydrocarbons and military bases, Tehran is quietly moving ahead with projects that instead benefit the locals in a direct way. In the battle for hearts and minds in one of the most volatile parts of the world, Tajikistan's shivering populace, two-thirds of whom live on less than $2 a day, may increasingly regard Iran as their real friend, charter "axis of evil" member or not.
http://www.upi.com/Energy_Resources/2009/02/12/Iran_enters_Tajik_energy_market_as_US_and_Russia_idle/UPI-46311234467455/2/

TAJIKISTAN: IRAN TO THE RESCUE
2/06/09
Iran will participate in efforts to complete the long-stalled Rogun hydroelectric power project in Tajikistan, Iran’s ambassador to Dushanbe has announced.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/news/articles/eav020609b.shtml

Iran Enters Tajik Energy Market

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has offered to help Tajikistan complete the construction of the 3,600 megawatt Rogun hydroelectric power station on the Vakhsh River, 70 miles east of the capital, Dushanbe.

If built, it would be Central Asia's largest.
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8711291355

Iran Stepping in to Bring Electricity to Iraq
By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail, IPS News. Posted August 12, 2008.
With temperatures sky-high and drought on its way, Iraqis in need of electricity are looking to Iran for relief.

...Through the difficulties, people look now to Iran, not the U.S., for a better life.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/94781/iran_stepping_in_to_bring_electricity_to_iraq/

Safe Power
What about Iran’s solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and biomass resources? Detailed data are hard to come by, but news organizations have reported that: (1) Iran has 324 days of sunshine a year (Mehr News Agency); (2) 6,500 mw of electric power are produced by wind turbines on l7 wind farms (IranMania October 2004); (3) Iran’ s first pilot geothermal power plant will be built in Sabalan, with similar projects in the works for other parts of the country (Tehran Times, November 2004); (4) installed hydropower capacity will be more than 5,000 mw by May 8, 2006, with a long-term goal of 30,000 mw (Iran Daily April 2005); (5) Iran’s New Energies Organization is preparing a biomass atlas (BBC News, February 15, 2006); and (6) 0.2% of Iran’s oil revenue will be used to develop new energy sources (BBC News, February 15, 2006).

http://www.energysmart.net/pages/safe.html

[Why Syzygy]

1. Sweet. nt

[Prometheus Bound]

2. Kissinger: Iran has no need for nuclear power so they must be after nukes

From The Guardian, June 19, 2006

A Negotiated Solution to the Iranian Nuclear Crisis is Within Reach

by Noam Chomsky

....Before 1979, when the Shah was in power, Washington strongly supported these programmes. Today the standard claim is that Iran has no need for nuclear power, and therefore must be pursuing a secret weapons programme. "For a major oil producer such as Iran, nuclear energy is a wasteful use of resources," Henry Kissinger wrote in the Washington Post last year.

Thirty years ago, however, when Kissinger was secretary of state for President Gerald Ford, he held that "introduction of nuclear power will both provide for the growing needs of Iran's economy and free remaining oil reserves for export or conversion to petrochemicals".

Last year Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post asked Kissinger about his reversal of opinion. Kissinger responded with his usual engaging frankness: "They were an allied country."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0619-28.htm

[Why Syzygy]

3. kick

:kick:

[Prometheus Bound]

4. James Woolsey, CIA director, 1993-95 - PBS interview Feb 23/09

What is the case against Iran on the issue of weapons of mass destruction? How real is that case?

Woolsey: Well, there is no underlying for one of the greatest oil producers in the world to need to get into the nuclear business. And if they do for some reason want a nuclear reactor for power purposes at Bushehr, there's absolutely no reason for them to be getting into the rest of the fuel cycle, reprocessing, and so forth, unless what they want to do is train and produce people and an infrastructure that can have highly enriched uranium or plutonium, fissionable material for nuclear weapons.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/interviews/woolsey.html