China and Iran build solar plants

A Chinese official announced his country's enthusiasm for launching joint venture projects with Iran in area of solar, wind, gas and hydroelectric power plant construction.The announcement was made by the visiting deputy governor-general of China's Hobbi province in a meeting with the governor-general of Iran's East Azarbaijan province on Sunday. Also during the meeting, the Chinese official underlined that his country is deeply keen on growing cooperation with Iran in the wide range of fields. "In addition to cooperation in developing new energy sources in this province, China is also eager to invest in the mining sector and in the car manufacturing and construction industries in the East Azarbaijan province (located in Northwestern Iran)," he said. The Chinese official also announced Beijing's eagerness to cooperate with Iranian companies in railway construction and irrigation projects, including channeling water from the Aras River to the Tabriz Plain. Chinese companies have recently shown a stronger taste for joint ventures with Iran in power plant construction. Turkey and Russia have also shown similar tastes. Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou announced earlier this month that the country had worked out agreements with Russia and Turkey to build joint power plants for power export to other countries. "At present, we have reached an agreement with the two countries with investment and technical capabilities to build joint power plants to export the generated electricity to the neighboring or other countries," Namjou said earlier this month. He continued saying that the Iranian and Turkish sides agreed to build a power plant in Iran so that Ankara can import the generated electricity or transfer it to a third country.According to an August statement of the energy ministry, Iran has hiked exports of power supplies to the neighboring countries by over 21.67% since the beginning of the new Iranian year (started March 21). According to the report, Iran exported over 2,701 kw/h of electricity to the neighboring countries since the start of the current Iranian year. With the implementation of the subsidy reforms law, not only domestic electricity consumption has reduced but also annual growth in electricity demand has been checked, thus paving the way for further export of electricity to the neighboring countries. Iran has power swap deals with Armenia, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Afghanistan and the autonomous region of Nakhichevan. The rate of exchanges hit 1,332 megawatts on August 2.