Fozia Azam

Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) has received a list of 3,000 public sector buildings across the country to be shifted to solar power under the government’s 10,000-megawatt solar power project. “The project is part of Pakistan’s National Energy Conservation Plan. The project aims to save about 300-500MW energy, and to cut down the bill the government pays for purchasing imported fossil fuels,” said Aqeel Hussain Jafri, Policy Adviser of AEDB, while talking to WealthPK.

He said the solarisation will be completed phase-wise under the country’s Ministry of Energy, which will carry out competitive bidding for the task on behalf of public sector entities. He said solarisation of public sector buildings will reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels, and address the economic crisis caused by the circular debt to some extent.

In 2022, the government announced that public sector buildings would be converted to solar power by April 2023. However, only the Prime Minister Secretariat’s solarisation process has been initiated so far, which will take further five to six months to be completed. According to official statistics, Pakistan's energy gap is between 5,000 to 8,000MW, with a 6%-8% growth annually. The situation calls for adoption of more sustainable and renewable energy sources, like solar, wind, hydropower, and biomass so that the dependence on imported fuel could be cut down.

In this scenario, utilising renewable energy (RE) resources for power generation can help reduce the circular debt. Till last year, Pakistan’s circular debt stood at Rs2.47 trillion, mostly recorded on part of fuel payments. Pakistan plans to increase the share of clean energy to 60% in its energy mix by 2030 to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels. At present, the share of renewable energy is only about 6%, according to government data.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk