This comes as tightening sanctions make it increasingly difficult for Tehran to sell oil.
Tehran says the time is right to go green for the world's fifth largest oil producer and the second biggest gas holder. Iran's biggest buyers are currently cutting imports of its crude and looking for other suppliers.
The renewable sector in Iran is tiny in comparison to it's oil and gas, as in much of the Middle East where investments have been focused on building energy-hungry industry fuelled by cheap oil and gas.
Iran's pressing need to reduce its own gas and oil use has also been the driving force for building the country's first nuclear power plant so that it can export more fuel.
"Reliance on hydrocarbon resources in the long run is neither possible nor meets national interests," oil ministry news website Shana reported Qasemi as saying in a statement.
"Gradual reduction of oil consumption on the one hand and a revolutionary and swift move toward using renewable energies on the other hand are the only appropriate mechanisms which can help the country," Shana reported him as saying in a statement delivered to the National Energy Conference in southern Iran.
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