Wind, hydropower on order for Iraq's Kurds

ERBIL, Iraq, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government is looking to wind and hydropower to meet its electricity needs.

The KRG Electricity Ministry wants wind farm feasibility studies in all three of its northern Iraq provinces and three hydropower plant feasibility studies. It announced the invitation to tender on its Web site Tuesday, with an Oct. 20 deadline for bidders.

The KRG is fast developing its oil and gas resources with controversial contracts that Baghdad criticizes. The central and regional governments are at odds as to the rights to develop hydrocarbons resources.

Most of the oil and gas produced will be exported, if an agreement can be reached.

Meanwhile, Iraq as a whole, and the KRG specifically, suffer from insufficient electricity supplies due to a lack of infrastructure and fuel for power plants.

The KRG projects could overcome the first hurdle and bypass the second.

Companies will propose sites, collect and analyze wind data at the sites, design farms for the sites and conduct feasibility studies for all wind sites in Iraq's Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaimaniya provinces.

The KRG has chosen sites for the hydropower plants already:

-- The Halwan plant, with an estimated capacity of 52 megawatts, near Ifraz village in Erbil.

-- The Gali Balinda plant near Suri village in Dohuk with an estimated 111 megawatt capacity.

-- The Delga plant, in Delga village in Sulaimaniya, with 97 megawatts of estimated capacity.

Companies will conduct surveys of dam and reservoir sites, conduct hydrological, hydraulic, geological and geotechnical studies, and a study for the plant itself.