Iran’s Seas and Lakes Sustainable Energy Potential

The objective of this paper is to study the positions and features of the boundary and domestic seas and lakes of Iran and possibility of using these energy sources and proposed approaches to do so. Generally the potential energies in the seas and oceans are classified in five groups, which are: wave energy, tidal energy, ocean thermal energy, ocean current energy, and salinity gradient energy. Regarding the variety of the country’s bodies of water other than ocean current energy it is possible to use rest of these energy resources. Each bodies of water of Iran are suitable for specific kind of seas energies. There are great sources of tidal energy in Persian Gulf coasts especially in west side of it. For thermal energy the ideal sites are located in the Caspian Sea coasts and wave energy can economically be extracted in Gulf of Oman coasts, especially in remote islands which are not connected to the grid. Finally, the Urmia Lake is best location for salinity gradient energy. This study shows that more investment is required in this area for research and small scale plants.