Page 44 - IRANRptSep18

9.1.11 Renewable energy sector news
Iran’s largest wind farm has been inaugurated in the northwestern province of Qazvin, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on August 27. The announcement comes following the mothballing or cancellation of a slew of renewable energy projects in the country since the US in early May announced it was reimposing sanctions on Iran and secondary sanctions on foreign investors who continue to do business with the Iranians. The 18-turbine wind farm complex is expected to reach a maximum capacity of 61 MW. It was built with a budget of €86mn in conjunction with Iran’s MAPNA Engineering. Minister of Energy Reza Ardakanian attended the inauguration of the facility, located in Tarom Sofla district, 120 km from the provincial capital city of Qazvin. “Renewable energy power plants have found their proper place in this country and they have been well developed,” Ardakanian reportedly said during the ceremony. Iran generates 640 MW of electricity from renewable energy power plants, 45% of which is produced by wind farms, according to government data.
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran head Ali Akbar Salehi said on July 18 that the country has built a plant that can produce rotors for up to 60 centrifuges a day. The announcement can be seen as an upping of the stakes in Tehran’s confrontation with Washington over Iran’s nuclear development work, which the Iranians may choose to restart in earnest if the economic warfare being waged on Iran by the US starts to take too heavy a toll. Although Iran is moving to put itself in a position from where it can get enrichment activities back on track, it maintains that its nuclear work has never been aimed at anything more than electricity generation and other civilian projects. Atomic energy agency head Salehi said the new factory did not in itself break the terms of the nuclear deal. “Instead of building this factory in the next seven or eight years, we built it during the negotiations but have not started it,” Salehi said, according to state media.
The factory would have the capacity to build rotors for up to 60 IR-6 centrifuges per day, he added. Salehi has also said Iran now has a stockpile of up to 950 tonnes of uranium, with 550 tonnes imported before the nuclear agreement was sealed and around 400 tonnes acquired after the agreement was finalised.
Last month, Salehi announced that Iran has started working on infrastructure for building advanced centrifuges at its Natanz facility.
9.1.12 Defence sector news
The Iranians unveiled their first "made-in-Iran" fighter jet on August 21, with state media outlets all carrying video or photographs of President Hassan Rouhani sat in the cockpit. Test flights of the jet, named the Kowsar, took place on the eve of the August 22 National Day of the Defence Industry, semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.
Defence industry observers say Iran’s air force is relatively minor, given that it roughly comprises of just a few dozen strike aircraft, largely Russian or American planes acquired before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The country has been forced to develop a domestic arms industry because international sanctions over the decades have prevented it from importing weapons.
The Kowsar can be used for "short aerial support missions", state media reports said, adding that it is equipped with systems that "promote precision targeting".
44 IRAN Country Report September 2018 www.intellinews.com