Iran's first geothermal power plant enters service at Meshgin Shahr

Azim Etemadi, chief executive of Iran's state Thermal Power Plant Holding Company, said in a televised interview carried on Friday 31 July 2026 that the country's first geothermal power plant, with a capacity of 5.4 megawatts and a 90 percent capacity factor, had entered service in recent days at Meshgin Shahr in Ardabil province. He said the commissioning places Iran among the countries operating a geothermal plant.

Etemadi said 17 wells of 3,000 metres each have been drilled at the Meshgin Shahr site, but only one is currently in use on a pilot basis, with plans to raise the site's output by bringing the remaining wells online. He added that the departure of foreign specialists after the war had delayed the project, and the unit was ultimately commissioned by domestic engineers.

In the same interview Etemadi said about 3,000 megawatts had been added to Iran's thermal generation capacity since Mordad 1404 (July 2025), and that the forced outage rate at thermal plants during this summer's consumption peak stood at 1.2 percent. He said Iran's electricity consumption record for this year was set on 27 July 2026.