By Syed Marwan Shah ISLAMABAD, June 06 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan has a huge potential to produce electricity through solar power plants which require lower inputs as compared to the expensive thermal power generation. Syed Mujahid Shah, a senior electrical engineer at NESPAK (National Engineering Services Pakistan), told WealthPK that Pakistan is very capable of generating electricity via solar PV (photo voltaic). As it is the cheapest source of generating energy in Pakistan, the price of electricity can drop to as low as Rs4 per unit,” he said. Mujahid said Pakistan is encouraging microgeneration through PV as it receives around 1KW of solar energy per square meter of its land mass for over six hours a day. The World Bank has also highlighted that Pakistan has a tremendous potential to generate solar energy, utilizing only 0.071% of the country’s area for PV that could meet the country’s current electricity demand. Tuaha Adil, a research economist at PRIME (Policy Research Institute of Market Economy), said it is alarming that Pakistan is overly dependent on energy imports because it contributes to the rising current account deficit – which is a growing concern in the country. “Pakistan can save up to $5 billion over the next 20 years by extending renewable energy, thus achieving greater energy security and reducing carbon emissions,” he said. Moreover, with the rising costs of electricity and an interrupted power supply, Pakistan is investing in solar energy at the public and private levels. “It is expected that this sector will grow significantly soon as the government of Pakistan targets at least 1 million customers and plans to add approximately 3,000MW of solar power,” he said. According to WealthPK research, Pakistan’s Board of Investment (BOI) proposed two reforms in net metering regulations that were implemented successfully, namely the removal of three-phase connections and the removal of a generation license from NEPRA (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority) for net metering up to 25KW. Nevertheless, these reforms have greatly shortened the time and reduced the cost of getting a net metering connection. Thus, this step in the net metering regulations by the government has stimulated the microgeneration facility at the domestic as well as commercial level.