UK firm to build €500m solar power farm in Iran

A British investment firm plans to fund the building and implementation of one of the world’s largest solar power projects in Iran worth €500 million.

Iran’s Ministry of Energy signed the deal with the organisation Quercus for the 600 megawatt solar farm to be built over the next three years, making it the sixth largest solar project in the world.

Diego Biasi, the chief executive of Quercus, said the landmark deal represents a “huge opportunity” for investment in renewable energy and shows that Iran is “open for business”.

Iran has around 300 sunny days a year, which the solar power project would utilise to support Tehran’s goal of becoming a “major hub of solar energy serving the region and beyond,” said Hamid Baeidinejad, the Iranian ambassador to the UK.

The project – which is expected to reduce emissions by at least 260,000 tons per year – will put Britain at the forefront of Iran’s growing renewable energy industry and would strengthen ties between the two nations.

The deal is an effect of the Iranian nuclear deal struck in 2015, which guaranteed the lifting of international sanctions on Iran, after which the country aimed to create a prosperous business environment where countries and global companies would invest.

The negative attitude of US President Trump towards the nuclear deal, however, has worried potential investors, particularly after he told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that it was the “worst and most one-sided transaction the United States has ever entered into”.

Read more: US weighs whether to stay in Iran nuclear deal