Daijiworld Media Network – Baghdad

Baghdad, Sep 21: Iraq is set to inaugurate its first industrial-scale solar power plant in the vast desert of Karbala this Sunday, aiming to address chronic electricity shortages and blackouts. The facility, the largest in the country, will eventually generate up to 300 megawatts at peak capacity.

Spanning 4,000 dunams (1,000 acres), tens of thousands of black solar panels have been installed in the al-Hur area southwest of Baghdad. Nasser Karim al-Sudani, head of Iraq’s national solar projects team, said another 225-megawatt plant is under construction in Babil province, and a massive 1,000-megawatt project will soon begin in Basra.

Deputy Electricity Minister Adel Karim noted that Iraq has solar projects totaling 12,500 megawatts under implementation, approval, or negotiation, which could supply up to 20 percent of the country’s electricity demand outside the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Despite Iraq’s vast oil and gas reserves, electricity production remains far below demand. Peak consumption reached 55,000 megawatts this summer, while domestic generation currently stands at around 28,000 megawatts, including 8,000 megawatts imported from Iran.

Solar power projects are part of a broader strategy to diversify energy sources, reduce dependence on imports, and curb environmental impacts from fossil fuels, offering a potential solution to Iraq’s long-standing power crisis.