Iran's power plants burned "six billion liters" of polluting diesel fuel in 2019
The Parliamentary Research Center announced in a new report that the country's power plants used "six billion liters" of highly polluting fuel, mazut (furnace oil), last year, an increase of about 62 percent compared to 2017.
Statistics from the Research Center show that the government has continuously increased the consumption of fuel oil and diesel in the power plant sector since 2017.
The surge in diesel fuel consumption in power plants last fall led to severe pollution in the country's major cities.
Since the beginning of 2019, the Ministry of Energy has stopped publishing any statistics on fuel consumption by power plants, and in recent weeks, it has even removed the website and official statistics related to the country's electricity and water industries from users' access.
The Ministry of Oil and Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, the Minister of Oil, consistently denied the issue of burning diesel fuel in power plants last year, but after increasing criticism and approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. Zanganeh finally announced in January of last year, "We have no choice but to use diesel fuel in power plants."
According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Energy, in 2017, about 3.7 billion liters of diesel fuel were consumed in power plants, but last year this figure increased to six billion liters.
Also, diesel consumption in power plants has increased from less than five billion liters to about 11 billion liters during this period.
The consumption of 17 billion liters of polluting liquid fuel in power plants comes despite the government announcing in 2017 that it would stop using these fuels in electricity generation.
New BP statistics show that last year, a quarter of Iran's electricity was generated in power plants that used diesel and mazut as fuel. A little over 66 percent of Iran's electricity was from gas, 2 percent from nuclear, 6.5 percent from hydro, and half a percent from renewables (wind and solar).
According to the report, Iran emitted 680 million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide last year, making it the sixth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. These gases are the main cause of air pollution and global warming.
Iran faces a gas shortage during the cold seasons and uses polluting diesel fuels, especially diesel fuel, in power plants. Also, the sulfur content of the diesel fuel produced by Iran is seven times higher than the International Maritime Organization standards, and since the beginning of last year, it has been banned for use by ships, forcing Iran to consume this highly polluting fuel domestically.
The Parliamentary Research Center says that one-third of the country's toxic sulfur dioxide gas emissions are related to the country's power plants.
Source: Radio Farda
