Iraq’s Northern autonomous Kurdistan governorate has awarded three solar power projects to local companies as part of plans to gradually switch to renewable energy, the official Iraqi Alsabah newspaper said on Wednesday. 

Each project has a production capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) and work is expected to begin in early 2022, the paper said, quoting Rowa Amin, renewable energy director in Kurdistan’s Electricity Ministry. 

“The three projects were awarded last month to 3 local companies..they are now in the process of designating project sites,” Amin said without identifying those firms. 

The projects are part of a government plan to boost solar power generation to 900 MW by 2030, Amin said, adding that the project infrastructure works are scheduled to be completed within six months after sites are determined. 

OPEC member Iraq, which controls the world’s fifth largest recoverable oil deposits, has been locked in a post-war drive to expand its electricity production with an emphasis on solar power projects. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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