KARBALA, Iraq (AP) — Iraq is set to open the country’s first industrial-scale solar plant Sunday in a vast expanse of desert in Karbala province, southwest of Baghdad.
It’s part of a new push by the government to expand renewable energy production in a country that is frequently beset by electricity crises despite being rich in oil and gas.
“This is the first project of its type in Iraq that has this capacity,” said Safaa Hussein, executive director of the new solar plant in Karbala, standing in front of row after row of black panels. From above, the project looks like a black-clad city surrounded by sand.
The plant aims to “supply the national network with electricity, and reduce the fuel consumption especially during the daytime peak load, in addition to reducing the negative environmental impact of gas emissions,” he said.
The newly opened solar plant in Karbala will eventually be able to produce up to 300 megawatts of electricity at its peak, said Nasser Karim al-Sudani, head of the national team for solar energy projects in the Prime Minister’s Office. Another project under construction in Babil province will have a capacity of 225 megawatts, and work will also begin soon on a 1,000 megawatt project in the southern province of Basra, he said.
Yep and i fully expect that the rise of solar power globally will dramatically improve the living conditions of the people in the middle east.
Consider this:
Most wars in the middle east have directly or indirectly been waged because of fossil fuels. It’s all about securing the flow of oil from the middle east through military power. Essentially, when the world’s reliance on fossil fuels diminishes, then there’s not so much a strong reason for the US anymore to interfere with the middle east; which will solve a big part of the problems.