Distributed Renewable Power Presented as Shield Against Energy Infrastructure Threats

**TEHRAN —** The expansion of distributed renewable-energy infrastructure is being presented by Iranian officials and market figures as more than an investment opportunity. It is also being described as a way to reduce the vulnerability of the country’s energy system to threats against large, centralized power plants.

Speaking Sunday at the launch of subscription for investment units in the Hursan Sustainable Solar Power Plant Project Fund on the Iran Energy Exchange, Shapour Mohammadi, a former head of Iran’s Securities and Exchange Organization and one of the founders of the energy exchange, said the main strategic strength of renewable infrastructure was its potential to withstand threats aimed at power-generation facilities.

“Developing renewable-energy infrastructure gives the country the power to become free from infrastructural military threats,” Mohammadi said, according to the Iranian Students News Agency, or IRNA. He referred specifically to repeated US threats to target energy infrastructure and argued that a network of dispersed solar plants would make the destruction of the energy system more difficult.

The comments place the development of renewable electricity within two overlapping policy frameworks: strengthening energy security and expanding the role of capital markets in financing new generation capacity.

### Dispersion as a security advantage

Mohammadi said the lack of concentration in renewable generation was a key advantage. A solar project spread across multiple locations, he argued, would not present the same vulnerability as a single, concentrated power station.

He drew a distinction between dispersed solar installations and a large centralized renewable plant. If solar generation is concentrated in one location, he said, it becomes vulnerable to attack in much the same way as a thermal power plant. The security benefit therefore depends not simply on the source of electricity, but also on the geographic design of the infrastructure.

The former regulator also pointed to limitations in the country’s electricity substations. IRNA’s report quoted him as saying that most of Iran’s electricity substations are rated at 63 kilowatts and that this creates a practical need for renewable facilities to be distributed. The report did not provide further technical detail about the network or explain how the stated substation limitation affects the design of individual projects.

Taken together, Mohammadi’s remarks suggest that the resilience argument for renewables rests on a combination of smaller installations, geographic dispersion and reduced dependence on a limited number of large generation sites. The evidence supplied for this report, however, contains no independent assessment of how much additional resilience such a system would provide or what other vulnerabilities could remain in transmission and distribution networks.

### Capital markets and renewable investment

The event also highlighted the growing role assigned to Iran’s capital markets in financing energy projects. Mohammadi said the Iran Energy Exchange plays an important role in allocating energy resources efficiently and praised recent steps by the Securities and Exchange Organization.

He cited the offering, during the previous week, of investment units in the Noor Renewable Project Fund, a 500-megawatt project whose assets consist of renewable power plants in several provinces. According to Mohammadi, the offering received a positive response from investors.

The Hursan fund, whose subscription process was launched at the event, is managed by insurance companies, he said. Mohammadi argued that insurers’ participation indicates confidence that the project offers suitable returns and manageable risk. The report did not disclose the fund’s projected returns, its risk structure, the number of participating insurers or the timetable for construction and operation.

He also described gold, silver and foreign-currency funds, alongside energy funds, as valuable investment instruments for the capital market. His comments framed renewable-energy projects as part of a broader effort to create investment products connected to physical assets and strategic sectors.

### A changing role for the Iran Energy Exchange

Mohammadi recalled that the effectiveness of the Iran Energy Exchange was questioned when the institution was being established. In his account, the exchange gradually gained influence as its managers worked to expand its activities and as the ministries of oil and energy became more involved.

He said representatives of the exchange are now regularly invited to government and parliamentary meetings. He also stated that their participation has become necessary in the drafting of laws and regulations related to the energy sector.

That evolution, as described by Mohammadi, reflects an attempt to connect policymaking, energy infrastructure and investment markets more closely. For renewable projects, such a connection could provide a channel for raising capital from investors rather than relying exclusively on direct government financing. The source, however, does not provide information on the total amount raised through the cited funds, the number of projects currently under construction or the share of renewable generation financed through the exchange.

### Renewable expansion under the 14th government

Mohammadi said that significant steps had been taken in renewable energy during the first two years of the 14th government. He did not specify the measures, capacity additions or policy changes to which he was referring.

The remarks come as renewable projects are being promoted simultaneously for their potential contribution to electricity supply, their attractiveness as financial assets and their possible role in reducing the strategic risk associated with centralized power infrastructure. In Mohammadi’s formulation, the geographic distribution of generation is central to all three arguments: it can support a more diversified power system, create opportunities for project-based investment and make it harder for a single strike to disable a large portion of generation capacity.

Whether these objectives can be achieved will depend on factors not addressed in the report, including the pace of project deployment, access to transmission and distribution connections, the reliability of the installations, financing conditions and the ability of the wider grid to absorb dispersed generation.

For now, the Hursan subscription launch and the earlier Noor offering indicate that renewable power is being positioned within Iran’s capital-market infrastructure as well as its energy strategy. Mohammadi’s central argument is that the value of renewable generation lies not only in producing electricity without fossil-fuel generation, but also in building a less concentrated system—one that, in his view, would be more difficult for an adversary to disable by targeting individual power plants.