Masdar kicks off 1-GW solar project in Iraq

Abu Dhabi-based renewables developer Masdar has begun work on a project for the deployment of 1 GW of solar capacity in four governorates in Iraq, the country's Ministry of Electricity said on Sunday.

The legal advisory agreement for the large-scale scheme was signed last week which gives the go-ahead for the start of work, the ministry's spokesman Ahmed Moussa told the Iraqi News Agency on Sunday.

As part of the project, Masdar will build two solar parks each of 100 MW in the governorates of Maysan and Nineveh, a 450-MW solar farm in Dhi Qar and a fourth solar plant with a capacity of 350 MW in Al-Anbar.

Moussa noted that the government was seeking to diversify power generation in the four governorates and was able to reduce the price of the tariff after negotiations. The plots for the construction of the solar plants have been selected in coordination with the governorates' authorities and Masdar has launched topographical studies of the land to assess the environmental impact of the project, the spokesman added.

The 1-GW deal with Masdar is one of three solar projects with a combined capacity of 2.75 GW that the Iraqi government agreed with international companies last year. The other two include a pact with TotalEnergies SE (EPA:TTE) for a 1-GWp solar complex and 750 MW of solar capacity to be deployed by Chinese state-owned conglomerate Power Construction Corp of China (Power China).

The three projects are expected to go into operation in 2025 despite the existing obstacles related to their grid connection, as the head of Iraq's Commission for control of radioactive sources Kamal Hussein Latif said at the end of April.

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