An Overview of Wind and Solar Energies in Iran

P22T1 The 1st Technical Seminar on the Role of New Technologies in Protecting Environment Faculty of New Sciences & Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, 17th of February, 2015. An Overview of Wind and Solar Energies in Iran Mohsen Shabaniverki 1, Hesam Shabaniverki 2, Hooman Babapoor 3, Masoumeh banisaffar 4 1- Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Abhar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan,Iran 2, 3- PhD candidate, Urban Planning, Lusofona University, Lisbon, Portugal 4- Phd Student of Geomorphology, University of Tehran Mohseen.shabani@gmail.com Abstract Iran is one of the main non-renewable energy producers in the world due to its plentiful fossil fuel resources. Utilization of natural gas and petroleum in transportation and industrial sectors has been developed vastly in Iran because of their low prices. Consequently, the increasing rate of pollutant formation and depletion of non-renewable fuels have emerged as new challenges in the energy scenario of this country. Since Iran has plenty of fossil fuel resources, alternative fuel and renewable resources have not been taken into consideration seriously. This existing trend of fossil fuel utilization is not according to the sustainable development aims which have been adapted for the country. Recently, controlling the unbridled fossil fuel consumption has become one of the main targets of the Iranian Government. A variety of natural resources in different regions of Iran can be applied as the main sources of renewable and sustainable energy (RSE) and considered as the supplementary energy in the energy mix policies. Biofuel, hydropower, wind, solar and geothermal are the main RSE that can be utilized for energy supply. Moreover, regarding the increasing rate of the population, bioenergy generation from waste materials can play a crucial role in sustainability of waste management strategies. In this regard, the present study has been conducted to evaluate wind and solar energy potentials from various resources in Iran. Keywords: Renewable, Pollutant, RSE, Wind, Solar, Potentials, Resources, Iran Introduction The Islamic Republic of Iran is situated in the Middle East .The Caspian Sea is in the north and in the south, the Persian Gulf and the sea of Oman, connects the country to the Indian Ocean and international waterways. Iran with the total area of 1648195 km2 and population of more than 72 million is located in the northern hemisphere in the east of Asia (one of the countries in the Middle East). The east meridian of 44.5 draws along the western most part of Iran and the east meridian of 63.8 draws along the eastern most part. Its land borders are with former Soviet States of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkmenistan, 2013 km to the north, Pakistan (978 km) and Afghanistan (945 km) to the east, Turkey (486 km) and Iraq (1609 km) to the west. Its water borders are with the Caspian Sea from the Astara River to the Gulf of Hosseinqoli (657 km) to the north, the Gulf of Oman in southwest from the Goatr to the Bandar-Abbas (784 km) and the Persian Golf from Bandar-Abbas to the mouth of Arvand Roud (125 km) to the south. Iran is 8731 km in circumference. Iran consists of the Iranian plateau (90% of its total area) with the exception of the coasts of the Caspian Sea and Khuzestan. It is considered a mountain country in which more than half of the area is covered with the mountain ranges, 1.4% by the desert and less than 1.4% by the arable land [1, 2, 3]. Iran’s domestic consumption and production have steadily grown together since 1984 and it is still heavily reliant on traditional thermal energy sources of electricity. Today Iran ranks 19th largest producer and 20th largest consumer of electricity in the world. Iran is known as the second largest oil production member in Organization of Petrol Export Country (OPEC) with production near 3.5 million barrel oil per day and accounts for roughly 5% of global oil outputs. Also, Iran contains an estimated 812 Trillion Cubic Feet (TFC) in proven natural gas reserves, surpassed only by Russia in the world [4]. Electric power generation installed in Iran is about 32.5 Giga Watts (GW) with more than 87% being from thermal natural gas fired power plant. Currently, Iran has five small nuclear reactors used for peaceful purposes. Nuclear and renewable energy will enable Iran to export more gas and oil and increase its revenue, since 80% of Iran’s revenue is based on oil and gas export.The demand for the new kinds of energy has been grown in the recent years [4]. The renewable energies can be good substitutes for the conventional energies. In fact, the increase in the population, industrial development, the growing demand for the energy and the environmental pollution are the crucial reasons for using the renewable energy recourses. The usage of renewable energy resources such as wind 1 P22T1 The 1st Technical Seminar on the Role of New Technologies in Protecting Environment Faculty of New Sciences & Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, 17th of February, 2015. in Iran is a promising prospect for the future as an alternative to conventional energy. This study presents an overview on the production of wind and solar energy in Iran. Renewable energy in Iran: 1. Wind Energy A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of the wind into mechanical energy. This mechanical energy can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain or pumping water) or for driving a generator that converts the mechanical energy into electricity that is supplied to the power grid or individual users. Global wind turbine installations have been rapidly rising, due to the maturation of wind turbine technology and the proliferation of government policies that support the development of wind energy. Installations increased from 11,531 megawatts (MW) per year in 2005 to 37,466 MW per year in 2009, with a total of 157,899 MW capacity installed at the end of 2009. The wind turbine market is diversifying geographically. In the 1990s and early 2000s, it generally centered on Europe, but in 2009 installations in Asia and North America exceeded installations in Europe. In 2009, installations in Asia were 14,639 MW; in North America, 10,872 MW; and in Europe, 10,526 MW [5, 6]. Although the upward trend of new projects has recently declined, due to the global financial situation, wind turbines are still seen as the best developed form of renewable energy and many governments have aggressive long term goals for their development. China became number one in total installed capacity (44,733 MW) and added 18,928 Megawatt within one year. In this year, altogether 83 countries, one more than in 2009, used wind energy for electricity generation. Among these 83 countries Iran was rated 39th (about 100 MW Capacity). Preliminary studies have shown an estimated practical wind power potential of at least 6,500 MW. Wind power in Iran generated 220 GWh of electricity over the year [4, 7, 8, 6]. Fig.1 show wind power total world capacity and fig.2 show 10 top countris in wind power. Fig.1.Wind power total word capacity, 1996-2011[4] Fig.2.Wind power capacity,Top 10 countries, 2011[4] 2 P22T1 The 1st Technical Seminar on the Role of New Technologies in Protecting Environment Faculty of New Sciences & Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, 17th of February, 2015. Iran has a good potential for the production of electricity by the wind energy due to its geographical location. In recent years various activities have been done to implement wind energy for the electricity generation. Although Iran has large fossil fuel reservoirs such as natural gas and crude oil, due to the limitation of these resources and their environment, the application of wind energy has been developed quickly. Wind energy is one of the renewable energies that have attracted great attention. In fact, during the recent years in Iran, very significant progress has been done in the manufacturing and the implementation of wind turbines for power generation. The application of wind energy in Iran goes back to 200 years B.C. The Persian windmills with wind-catching surfaces as long as 5 m and as high as 10 m were used for grinding grain in the area known as Nehbandan in the western part of Iran up to a few years ago.[9] Iran that is located in a low-pressure area on the one hand, & on the other hand, due to its proximity to highpressure areas in north & northwest, generally it is affected by 2 kinds of wind [10]: 1. 2. Winds that are blowing in winter from the Atlantic Ocean & Mediterranean sea and also central Asia. Winds that are blowing in summer from Indian Ocean & also from northwest. Iran has been affected by following atmospheric currents [11,12,13]: 1. 2. 3. 4. The main pressure center in the central Asia in winter. The main pressure center in the Pacific Ocean in summer. The west current blowing from the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean especially in winter. The northwest current in summer. In the year 2002, SUNA organization, started a wind potential assessment project for producing wind atlas of Iran. This project was finished in 2010. In this wind atlas, 26 areas of Iran including 45 sites were investigated [4]. Fig.3.Iran Wind Atlas at the height of 80 meters [4] It has been anticipated that Iran’s wind atlas will be ready in 2010. Preliminary studies led to the identification of some different geographical locations in the country that are suitable for generating electricity from the wind energy, the Manjil Tunnel (Gilan-Manjil), Takestan, Shahriar, Tehran, Semnan, Khorasan, Neishabur, Sabzevar, Badqais in Khorasan Province, Mashhad all the way down to Khaf,Torbat Heidarieh, as well as the provinces of Ardebil, East and West Azarbaijan, Kordestan, Hamedan, Kermanshah, Ilam, Isfahan, Kerman, Fars and the regions located in the south parts of Sistan and parts of the southern coasts are capable of producing 6,500 megawatts of electricity generated from the wind energy. According to international and local renewable energy experts Iran possesses wind and other renewable energy resources which may be characterized as “world class”, but the Iranian wind resource has not yet been mapped out in detail, and existing data is not easily available. During the project preparation the wind resources in the Manjil area were assessed based on existing data from a local meteorology station and found to be in line with Danish Class 1 / good European sites [14]. Iran’s first experience in installing and using modern wind turbines dates back to 1994. Two sets of 500 kW NORDTANK wind turbines were installed in MANJIL and ROODBAR. They produced more than 1.8 million 3 P22T1 The 1st Technical Seminar on the Role of New Technologies in Protecting Environment Faculty of New Sciences & Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, 17th of February, 2015. kWh per year. These two sites are in the north of Iran, 250 km from Tehran, the capital of Iran. The average wind speed is 15 m/s for 3700 hours per year in ROODBAR, and 13 m/s for 3400 hours per year in MANJIL. After this successful experience, in 1996 the contract for 27 wind turbines was signed and they were installed by 1999 in MANJIL, ROODBAR and HARZEVIL. HARZEVIL is the third wind farm site near to MANJIL [15]. 2. Solar Energy With increasing awareness of sustainability and the demand for renewable energy sources, the solar industry plays an essential role in providing such a solution. Solar energy presents the opportunity to generate clean electricity, which can lead to a sustainable life style. Solar radiation arriving on earth surface is the most fundamental renewable energy source. In recent years, solar energy utilization in various applications has increased significantly.One of the most importent which you can see in Fig.4 is the best countries for using solar power in 300 . Fig.4. Best countries for using solar power [4] Solar energy is one of the most important sources of renewable energy. Solar radiation is variable in different parts of the world and in the Earth Sun Belt has the highest value. Iran is located in the area throw this and Studies show that the use of solar equipment in Iran is very suitable and can be provide part of the energy that nation’s needs.Fig.5 showing Iran solar energy potential. Fig.5.Solar potentional in Iran [4] According to international standards, if the average daily solar radiation energy above 3.5 kilowatt hours per square meter (3,500 kW / h) is the use of solar modules such as solar collectors or photovoltaic systems are very economical and affordable. In many parts of Iran, solar radiation energy is much higher than the international average and in some places is measured higher than 7 to 8kWh/m2.But the average of the solar energy radiation 4 P22T1 The 1st Technical Seminar on the Role of New Technologies in Protecting Environment Faculty of New Sciences & Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, 17th of February, 2015. on the surface of of Iran is about 4.5kWh/m2. Iran with having 300 suny day in a year is one of the best countries in having solar energy potentional .The average solar radiation for the whole of Iran is about 19.23 Mega joules per square meter, and it is even higher in the central part of Iran [4]. The installation of solar energy technologies has grown exponentially at the global level over the last decade. For example, as illustrated in Figure 2(a), global installed capacity PV (both grid and off-grid) increased from 1.4 GW in 2000 to approximately 40 GW in 2010 with an average annual growth rate of around 49% [16] Fig.5. Total Installed Capacity of PV at the Global Level [16] Iran has an average solar insulation of 2000 kWh/m2.yr. The sunny hours which sunshine could be utilized are about 2800 hr/yr. Solar energy has not been formally commercialized yet. Regions having high Potential for solar energy are: Shiraz, Tehran, Khorasan, Yazd, and Semnan (IAEA, 2000). Some of the completed solar energy projects are [4, 17]:      10 kW Photovoltaic Power Plant at “Dorbeed” village in Yazd Province. 2 Photovoltaic Power Plant at “Hosseinian” and “Moalleman” village in Semnan Province with the total capacity of 92 kW. 250 kW Solar Power Generator in Shiraz. 350 units (1400m2) Solar Water Heaters. P.V. pumping for agricultural use, P.V. electricity generation for a border post and P.V. street lighting. Some of the ongoing solar energy projects are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 1MW Solar Power Thermal Plant under construction in Talegan-Karaj. 45 kW grid connected P.V. under constructed in Talegan 650 units (2600m2) Solar Water Heaters for domestic use under construction. 2 units (400 m2) Solar Water Heater for village public baths under construction CONCLUSIONS: The usage of renewable energy resources shows a promising prospect in Iran in the future as an alternative to the conventional energy. In the past decade, wind energy has become a valuable and dependable source of electricity worldwide. There is a promising potential in Iran for both wind and solar energy. Iran has a considerably high level of renewable energy resources that can be utilized to satisfy a part of the total energy demand in the country. 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