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Could Iran’s latest discovery be the ticket out of sanctions? Iran could leverage its critical minerals mining potential to attract FDI and lift west-imposed sanctions, minerals economist Jamil Hijazi writes for Mining.com. As the renewables and EV industries gather steam globally, countries with lithium reservoirs like Iran — which recently announced the discovery of MENA’s first reserve earlier this month — will be able to rake in foreign direct investments and will see their political clout increase as demand for minerals essential to the clean energy transition grows. Iran announced its mining strategy in 2017 in a bid to expand its minerals and metals sector, but still lacks the infrastructure to realize its target of becoming a minerals extraction hub. A potential solution to unlock its full capacity would be tapping foreign companies for the supply of machinery and technical know-how, Hijazi notes.
Installing floating solar energy panels on top of the world’s water reservoirs could minimize evaporation levels and produce massive amounts of energy, according to new research published by the US Energy Information Administration. Covering 30% of the world's 114.5k water reservoirs with floating solar PV installations would conserve the land used for ground-mounted systems and generate some 9.5 mn GWh of clean energy annually — enough to power 6.2k cities across 124 countries.
Water security and energy efficiency: The floating panels would shade water that would otherwise evaporate due to heat exposure, saving enough water for some 300 mn people annually, the study notes. Placement of PVs on top of buoyant platforms in water reservoirs simultaneously cools the panels to avoid the risk of overheating in hot regions, Wired notes. Egypt could generate some 66 TWh (66k Gwh) while saving 200 bn gallons of water annually if it deploys floating PV across a 259 sq km radius, the tech magazine says, and over 40 developing countries including Sudan have more capacity for floating solar installations than their current energy demands.
