(21 Sep 2025)
IRAQ SOLAR POWER PLANT
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 2:30
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Karbala, Iraq – 10 September 2025
1. Various drone shots of solar panels at solar power plant ++MUTE++
2. Various of solar panels
3. Electricity transfer system at the power plant
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Safaa Hussein, executive director of solar power plant in Karbala:
“This is the first project of its type in Iraq that has this capacity. As you can see, the first stage has started and it will be ready to feed the national grid over the next week, God willing. And God willing, it will gradually raise the loads accordingly. Karbala province is leading the way on this issue, along with the province of Babil through the region of al-Iskandariya."
5. Various of power plant
6. Various of power transport facilities
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Safaa Hussein, executive director of solar power plant in Karbala:
"The solar power project aims to supply the national grid with electricity and reduce fuel consumption, especially during day peak load. It will additionally reduce the negative environmental impact caused by gas emissions."
8. Wide of solar panels
9. Solar panels covered with dust in Karbala’s desert
10. Various of rows of solar panels
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Yousef Adnan, site manager at solar power plant in Karbala:
"Regarding the Karbala solar energy project, it has the capacity of 300 megawatt and contains around half a million solar panels. There will be another facility within the same project with a capacity of 225 megawatts in the province of Babil."
12. Various of solar panels and facility
STORYLINE:
Iraq opened the country’s first industrial-scale solar plant this weekend in a vast expanse of desert in Karbala province.
It’s part of a new push by the government to expand renewable energy production in a country that is frequently beset by electricity crises despite being rich in oil and gas.
From above, the project looks like a black-clad city surrounded by sand.
"This is the first project of its type in Iraq that has this capacity," said Safaa Hussein, executive director of the new solar plant in Karbala, standing in front of row after row of black panels.
It aims to "supply the national grid with electricity and reduce fuel consumption, especially during day peak load," he said.
The plant will eventually reach a capacity of 300 megawatts, said Nasser Karim al-Sudani, head of the national team for solar energy projects in the Prime Minister’s Office.
There are projects under construction in Babil province, that will have a capacity of 225 megawatts, and in the southern province of Basra, where work will begin soon on a 1,000 megawatts project, he said.
Those are part of an ambitious plan to implement large-scale solar power plants in an effort to ease the country’s chronic electricity shortages.
Deputy Minister of Electricity Adel Karim said Iraq has solar projects with a combined capacity of 12,500 megawatts either being implemented, in the approval process, or under negotiation.
If fully realized, they would supply between 15% and 20% of Iraq’s total electricity demand, excluding the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, according to Karim.
Despite its oil and gas wealth, Iraq has suffered from decades of electricity shortages because of war, corruption and mismanagement.
Power outages are common, especially in the scorching summer months.
Power plants fueled by Iranian gas contribute about 8,000 megawatts of the current supply.
AP video shot by Salman Amin
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