Iraq has awarded a contract to build a new solar power plant in the Central Najaf Governorate as part of a post-war drive to tackle a persistent power supply deficit, the official Iraq Alsabah newspaper said on Thursday. 

The Electricity Ministry has approved the site for the project which will have a generation capacity of 1,000 megawatts, the paper said, quoting Hadi Al-Salami, an Iraq Parliament member for Najaf. 

Salami said the project would be launched once procedures to transfer the land ownership in West Najaf are completed. 

“The project has been awarded to a company with experience in this field....work on the project is expected to begin within one month,” he said. 

Salami did not identify the contractor but said the solar plant is one of several projects planned by the Governorate to resolve power supply shortages. 

OPEC member Iraq has awarded contracts to a number of global firms over the past months to build solar plants in a bid to end its heavy reliance on imported electricity, mainly from neighbouring Iran. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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