By Abdul Ghani

More than 390 solar technicians have been trained under the Sindh Solar Energy Project (SSEP), a major World Bank-supported initiative aimed at expanding renewable energy access across the province, according to a project document available with Wealth Pakistan.

The document reveals that the $100 million project, implemented by the Sindh government's Energy Department, has achieved significant progress in solar energy deployment and capacity building before the closure of World Bank funding on July 31, 2025.

Under the project's capacity-building component, 11 Project Management Unit (PMU) staff members received specialised training, while 392 solar technicians were trained against an overall target of 600 technicians. Solar laboratories are also being established at NED University and Mehran University to strengthen technical expertise and support the growing renewable energy sector in Sindh.

According to the document, total disbursements reached $94.9 million by August 2025, representing nearly 95 per cent utilisation of the committed funding. The project has now formally ended, although the Government of Sindh is continuing remaining activities through its own resources.

The document highlights substantial progress under the utility-scale solar parks component, which allocated $15 million for developing approximately 270 megawatts of solar power generation capacity. The Karachi Electric auctions for these projects were completed at tariffs around 3.4 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Under the distributed solar programme for public buildings, solar systems with a combined capacity of 21.7MW were commissioned and handed over to the Sindh Health Department in the first phase. An additional 11.8MW is nearing completion, while work continues at 24 priority sites. However, 109 Information and Communication Block sites were dropped due to budgetary and timeline constraints.

The project also made significant inroads into rural electrification. Of the targeted 200,000 households, solar home systems have already been installed in 126,000 households. The provincial government is continuing efforts to complete the remaining installations after the phasing out of World Bank financing.

The document further notes that media reports published in September 2025 raised concerns regarding transparency and alleged procurement irregularities under the project. Following

these reports, the Ministry of Economic Affairs sought the World Bank's observations.

According to the document, the World Bank responded that while the project remained active until its closure on July 31, 2025, no compliance issues were identified by its task team or the implementing agency regarding the solar home systems delivered by the contractor.

Credit: INP-WealthPk