Iran is upping efforts to roll out solar power projects nationwide, the latest developing nation to turn to the sun in an effort to address power shortages and shore up energy security.
Renewable electricity has “evolved from a supportive policy to a strategic necessity,” an Iranian minister said in Tehran this week: The country’s solar capacity doubled this year, and officials want to increase it a further fourfold in three years. Other emerging markets are making even more aggressive progress: Pakistan has seen solar go from essentially nonexistent to accounting for nearly a fifth of all its power within a few years, while Africa overall saw a 60% increase of Chinese solar panel imports over the course of a year.
