Iraq is advancing several solar power projects as part of a plan to meet its electricity needs.
Iraq is set to open its first industrial-scale solar plant in a vast desert area in Karbala as the government attempts to tackle an electricity crisis that has led to widespread blackouts.
Authorities said the plant, the largest of its kind in Iraq, will be inaugurated on Sunday to eventually produce up to 300 megawatts of electricity at its peak, according to Iraqi media reports.
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Tens of thousands of black panels are set out in rows in a huge desert area, spanning some 4,000 dunams (1,000 acres or 400 hectares) in the al-Hur area of Karbala, located southwest of capital Baghdad.
Nasser Karim al-Sudani, head of the national team for solar energy projects in the Iraqi prime minister’s office, said another project under construction in Babil province will have a capacity of 225 megawatts, and work will also begin soon on a 1,000-megawatt project in the southern province of Basra.
قطاع الطاقة 🇮🇶 | الاول في العراق.. صحراء محافظة كربلاء المقدسة تكتسي بالألواح الشمسية مع تواصل مشروع انشاء محطة كهرباء للطاقة الشمسية ستولد 300 ميغاواط من الطاقة الكهربائية pic.twitter.com/ZTn9MwArat
— مشاريع العراق – Iraq projects (@IraqProjects) July 29, 2025
Translation: The first in Iraq. The desert of the holy Karbala Governorate is covered with solar panels as the project to establish a solar power plant continues, which will generate 300 megawatts of electrical energy.
The projects are part of a larger vision to account for a portion of Iraq’s electricity needs using large-scale solar power plants that could help ease the electricity crisis while also reducing the negative environmental impact of gas emissions.
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. Barring the semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region of Iraq, the projects could potentially supply up to 20 percent of Iraq’s total electricity demand, according to the official.
But despite its massive oil and gas resources, Iraq continues to face – as it has for decades – electricity shortages rooted in war, corruption and mismanagement.
Nationwide electricity consumption peaked at about 55,000 megawatts this summer as scorching temperatures exceeded 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.
This is while deputy minister Karim said the country is now producing up to 28,000 megawatts of electricity, including about 8,000 megawatts fuelled by natural gas imported from neighbouring Iran and fed to power plants in Iraq.
The critical supplies from Iran have faced many challenges over the years as well, particularly from unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States in an effort to pressure Tehran and squeeze its revenue streams amid a standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme and military capabilities.
In March, Washington announced it was ending a sanctions waiver that allowed Iraq to directly purchase electricity from Iran, which needed to be renewed every 120 days. The US has, for now, left another waiver in place that lets Iraq buy Iranian natural gas to feed its power plants.
Iran is also facing multiple crises, including massive energy shortages, an issue that has affected its exports to Iraq.
