Please use the sharing tools found via the email icon at the top of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. A UK company plans to build one of the world’s largest solar power farms in Iran, highlighting European investor enthusiasm for the country despite its renewed diplomatic tensions with the US.
Quercus, a green investment company in London, said it had reached agreement with Iran’s energy ministry on plans for a 600-megawatt plant in central Iran that would rival the largest solar projects so far built in China, India and the US.
Diego Biasi, Quercus chief executive, said the €500m deal showed Iran was “open for business” and represented a “huge opportunity” for investors in renewable energy.
Iran has set a target to install 5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity — equivalent to about five nuclear reactors — by 2020 as part of efforts to meet rising demand for electricity while cutting air pollution and carbon emissions.