ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s electricity ministry on Thursday announced plans to build a large solar power plant in Basra province that will produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity as Baghdad is under American pressure to end its energy dependency on Iran. The project is being implemented by TotalEnergies.
Named Basra Sun, it will be the largest solar power plant in Iraq, covering an area of nine thousand dunams in the desert.
“The implementation of the project has been signed between the Ministry of Oil and TotalEnergies as an investment project within the framework of the fifth round of contracts for electricity production,” ministry spokesperson Ahmed Musa told Rudaw.
Dunia Chalabi, managing director of TotalEnergies in Iraq, told Rudaw on Tuesday that the company will be sending the first 250 megawatts of solar power into the national grid by the end of this year.
“Then next year and over the next two years after that the three other phases [will be implemented],” she added.
At peak demand during the hottest time of the year Iraq needs between 32,000 and 35,000 megawatts of electricity, but is currently producing just 17,000 megawatts. If currently stalled gas imports from Iran resume, production could reach 27,000 megawatts.
Iraq continues to buy electricity from Iran thanks to sanction waivers provided by Washington. The Donald Trump administration, however, is pressuring Baghdad to end its reliance on Iran.
The current waiver expires on Saturday and it is not clear if Washington will renew it.
“The Iraq sanctions waiver, as you've noted, for Iran gas imports, expires on the eighth and we have, at this point, as you might imagine, we have nothing to announce with regards to the current electricity waiver that expires on the eighth. In line with National Security Presidential Memorandum number two, we are reviewing all existing sanctions waivers that provide Iran any degree of economic or financial relief,” Tammy Bruce, Department of State spokesperson, told Rudaw during a press briefing.
Bruce urged the Iraqi government to “eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible.”
