Energy, Air & Water
55 years Iran Air (HOMA)
Last week HOMA (National Airline of Iran) celebrated its 55 years birthday. “From 2011 to 2014 Iranians have spent about $12 billion on foreign airliners. This year, spending has been about $5 billion”, said Mr Abbas Akhundi, Minister of Roads and Urban Developments.
Out of 250 aircrafts Iran currently owns, 100 are out-of-operation. The Government is determined to reconstruct national airliners to keep this added value in the country; the deal of 118 airplanes from Airbus has been a great step.
Mr Akhundi says within the next 10 years, Iran needs to buy 500 aircraft and this will be done through Iranian Leasing Aircraft Company foundation.
Management is an art
If Iran cannot manage water consumption today, it may face serious challenges tomorrow. Over the last years rain has been scarce in the country. At the same time out-of-dated agricultural methods waste lots of water too. One way of helping is to cultivate water-consuming products in glass-houses instead of in open-fields. Mr Mahmoud Hojatti, Minister of Agriculture, says that government has no constraint to provide facilities for „glass houses projects”, from construction to operation phases. He says cultivating the current amount of cucumbers in glass houses, would save up to 1 milliard cubic-meters, equivalent to Karaj dam capacity. This method in cultivating tomatoes could save double as much as this volume.
What else to do with cheap oil?
Low oil-prices make Iran to reconsider other methods of using oil, instead of selling it right away. One of which is power industry. Iran exports about 12 billion kilowatt-hours of power annually, worth $1 billion. Its main destinations are Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. It also imports about 4 billion kilowatt-hours of power, basically from Armenia and Turkmenistan. The current installed capacities are about 74 thousands Megawatt and the country plans to increase it to 100 thousands megawatt within the next five years. For which the country needs foreign investors. Does the dream come true?
