News

Under the patronage of the University President and the supervision of the Dean of the College of Engineering Technologies, Dr. Azhar Mohsen, the Power Mechanics Department – Renewable Energy Branch, in cooperation with the Energy Research Center, organized a scientific field visit to Al Bilal Solar Energy Company in the holy province of Karbala as part of the academic activities for third-stage students. A group of students, accompanied by the teaching staff, participated in the visit with the aim of enhancing their practical skills by observing real large-scale solar projects connected to the national grid. Al Bilal Company welcomed the university delegation and guided them on a field tour through the project sites, where students learned about the design, installation, and operation mechanisms of utility-scale solar systems, as well as the technologies used for productivity analysis, power regulation, and grid integration. Al Bilal Solar Energy Company is considered one of the leading firms in renewable energy projects in Iraq and is part of Al Bilal Group, specialized in infrastructure and energy projects. The company is currently supervising one of the largest solar power projects in the country, with a total design capacity of 525 MW, distributed over two phases: 300 MW in Karbala and 225 MW in Babil. The first phase included the installation of approximately 39,000 solar panels over an area exceeding 4,000 dunams. The project aims to support the national grid, reduce fossil fuel consumption during peak hours, lower harmful emissions, and reinforce Iraq’s direction toward clean energy investment. It is the first major solar power plant to feed electricity directly into the national grid, with an approved feed-in tariff of 3.95 cents per kilowatt-hour. This visit comes as part of the department’s plan to strengthen practical training and link academic knowledge to real-world applications, helping prepare engineers capable of contributing to future clean energy projects and providing students with direct interaction with technical expertise in this vital sector.