Economic Analysis of Developing Tidal Stream Energy Farms in the South Coasts of Iran

Subsiding in energy sector and also constant costs of energy barriers for many years caused that Iran has great dependence to conventional fuels. This issue leads government to change its approach and to adapt its barriers costs and also to invest in renewable energy sector. One of these renewable energies, is tidal stream energy. This study aims to investigate competitiveness this type of energy with conventional ones in southern coasts of Iran and to define amounts of required investments. Based on previous studies, three zones have been specified: Khowran Strait, Hengam and Great-Tonb Islands. The last two zones have better technical potential to develop tidal energy farms. Investigations show that LCOEs of these two sites are 182.253 and 221.507 GBP/MWh, respectively. According to available REFiTs, payback periods of these two sites are 18.77 and 23.79 years, respectively.