Five-Year Development Plans of Renewable Energy Policies in Iran: A Content Analysis

Somayeh Dehhaghi, Shahla Choobchian, Barat Ghobadian, Homayon Farhadian, Ants-Hannes Viira, Horatiu Ioan Stefanie, Steven Van Passel and Hossein Azadi
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Somayeh Dehhaghi: Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-111, Iran
Shahla Choobchian: Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-111, Iran
Barat Ghobadian: Department of Mechanics of Biosystems Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-111, Iran
Homayon Farhadian: Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 14115-111, Iran
Horatiu Ioan Stefanie: Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babeş-Bolyai University, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Steven Van Passel: Department of Engineering Management, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Hossein Azadi: Department of Geography, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-27

Abstract: Renewable energy (RE) policies can play an effective role in the development of renewable resources. The main goal of this paper was to conduct a content analysis on RE development policies in Iran’s five-year National Development Plan (NDP) by investigating upstream national documents. To achieve the goal, 29 upstream documents related to RE were identified and analyzed through a systematic literature review. Then, a qualitative content analysis was applied to analyze the documents. The results showed that Iran’s current RE policies need to be reviewed, reformed, and strengthened. For example, lack of sufficient attention to renewable heat and fuel was one of the deficiencies of RE policies in Iran’s five-year NDP. The decentralization of policymaking in the unified organization was also one of the weaknesses in the policymaking process of the RE. Iran can develop sustainable and clean RE policies by using sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, wave, and tidal power. The paper concludes that, although RE policies have the potential for development in Iran due to environmental, social, and economic advantages, they could face some infrastructural, managerial, socio-cultural, and economic challenges. Accordingly, effective and innovative policymaking is required to meet such challenges.

Keywords: energy; policymaking; energy policy; fossil fuel; quantitative analysis; renewable energy development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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