There is a need to wind-up thermal power plants gradually across the country to save over $8 billion being spent annually on oil import bill in the power sector.
Tuwairqi Steel Mills Limited Engineering (TSMLE), Country Head Zaigham Adil Rizvi said this in a seminar on energy at a hotel on Sunday. He added that $8 billion saving could help jack up Pakistan’s foreign reserves.
He said Pakistan could save $8 billion per annum just by switching over to solar resources, as the country used fossil fuel to generate around 65 percent of its electricity, citing that hike in oil prices in international market would automatically raise the electricity tariff.
Quoting a World Bank report, he said that around 44 percent of households were not connected to the grid in Pakistan, while more than 80 percent of these were in rural areas, and around 45 percent of homes in rural areas were still using kerosene as a primary or secondary source for lighting.
The TSMLE head said, “India has gained over 1,000MW through solar system and we are still hovering near 50MW, while Bangladesh government with the financial assistance of World Bank has electrified over one million homes through solar energy and another one million are being electrified through this off-grid system.”
It was need of the hour, he said, the government should legislate and make it compulsory for shopping malls, multi-story buildings and governmental offices to install solar systems on their premises as well as encourage people to set up solar panels at their homes to counter power outages in the country.
Rizvi welcomed the Punjab government’s initiatives of establishing 100MW Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park in Bahawalpur, which could become an example for other provinces to follow in future.
Unfortunately, he added, Pakistani manufacturers rely on imports for components of solar power system, as negligible ratio of solar cells or photovoltaic panels were being manufactured locally, as solar panels were being imported from Germany, Japan and China, and batteries were also imported and manufactured locally.
The cost of components for solar home systems remained high and needed to be given subsidies like government had subsidized many other components of engineering, he said and suggested the government to provide at least 20 per cent subsidy on solar home systems so that common people could be attracted and consequently overburdened grids across the country could be relieved. In this regard, he said, commercial scheduled banks could play a pivotal role in making solar system popular in the country.
