IRNA - Iran produced more than three billion kilowatts of power from renewable energy sources over past 10 years as the country moves to cut down on its carbon emission.

The country generated 3.011 billion kilowatts per hour of electricity from renewable resources since late June 2009 until April 20, 2019, according to the Ministry of Energy (MOE).

The generated electricity led to the reduction of 2.078 million tons of greenhouse gases, the report said.

Iran has been taking measures to produce energy from renewable energy sources in a bid to reduce carbon emission from fossil fuels.

“The production reduced 855 million square meters of fossil fuels, that are one of the main pollutants in the country,” the ministry said on Saturday. Also, the amount led to the reduction of over 663 million litres of water used in producing electricity.

The private sector has invested nearly $900 million in the renewable power energy that has created 43,350 direct and indirect jobs during last 10 years.

Iran is installing or planning to install 424 more power plants with renewable energy feedstock, the ministry said, adding that nameplate capacity of the existing plants has reached 706 megawatts.

Photovoltaic and wind power plants make up the bulk of the country’s renewable energy stations. 43 percent of the power is generated from solar plants and 41 percent comes from wind farms.

There are only 100 renewable energy power plants in Iran with the ability to produce megawatts of power. Tehran plans to construct 46 more such plants to increase the national output.

The ministry reports that 13 percent of renewable power plants is small hydroelectric, the remaining 2 percent belongs to heat recovery steam generators and 1 percent is biomass.