Solar Energy Lights Up Homes, Schools and Factories in Pakistan

[Riaz Haq]

“I use the solar light for cooking at night. We save money because we had to buy candles and kerosene before. We also use it to charge our mobile phones.” Marvi, Yousaf Babar Village in Sindh, Pakistan

About 250 schools and 12,000 homes in Pakistani villages have so far been lit by solar lights. The program is funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) to help flood-affected people in rural Sindh and Punjab.

Plan International Pakistan and the Punjab education department have rebuilt 400 schools destroyed by floods, and implemented solar panels in 250 schools that did not have electricity. In addition to the solar panel installation, the DfID funded project also provided water and sanitation, school furniture, school paper, schoolbags and uniforms, sports equipment and health education for 54,000 primary school children.

The solar lights cost about $15 each and give sustainable, free light for up to 10 hours after each charge, and can last for up to five years. The cost is recouped within a couple of months, providing excellent value for money, according to DfID sources.

The solar technology is also used for recharging mobile phones, which provide vital communication lifelines in rural areas, enabling people to keep in touch with family and community. The mobile phones are helping reunite displaced families and communities, and helping people to try to get back to a normal life.

In addition to growing number solar energy users in Pakistani villages, the city dwellers are also increasingly turning to solar to cope with frequent power cuts, and gas shortages. There is growing demand for low cost Chinese solar products such as solar street lights, solar garden lights, solar generators, solar heaters, solar water heaters and solar water collectors for industry, according to a report in Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper. Many consumers told ET they prefer solar over UPS (un-interruptible power supplies) and diesel or gas generators.

“Sales of solar energy panels have increased about 40 per cent compared to winter of last year. Sunshine in Pakistan remains for approximately 10 hours a day, which is enough to produce 1,000 watts per square meter. Producing electricity from the sun is very easy,” the paper quotes Tariq Nurani, a solar products dealer, as saying.

The Express Tribune story also features Khawaja Cotton Industries CEO Muhammad Amjad Khawaja who said he invested Rs 5 million for solar water boilers which helped deal with increasing gas load shedding in the textile manufacturing sector.

The rapid cost declines and increasing availability of solar equipment are enabling energy-starved but resilient Pakistanis to cope with the twin shortages of gas and electricity.

Here's a World Economic Forum story on solar revolution in Pakistan:

https://youtu.be/8IIJRuLAbOE

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[Riaz Haq]

Pakistani bank partners Nizam Energy on commercial solar financing

https://www.pv-tech.org/news/pakistani-bank-partners-nizam-energy-o...

The collaboration agreement was signed by Babbar Wajid, Head of Product Development & Business Management – JS Bank and Usman Ahmad, CEO – Nizam Energy in the presence of team members from both organizations. Credit: JS Bank

Pakistani financier JS Bank has partnered with local solar firm Nizam Energy on a PV module financing solution directed at small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The smart panel solution, named JS Smart Roshni, will allow SMEs that use Nizam’s solar modules and technical services to benefit from financing of up to PKR10 million (~US$86,500) at a mark-up of 6% from the bank, while reducing the SMEs’ dependency on grid power.

Babbar Wajid, head of product development and business management, JS Bank said: “Our partnership with Nizam Energy reflects our commitment to provide customers with responsible solutions for their energy needs, while creating medium to long-term savings. This initiative will help our clients increase operational efficiency in an environmentally responsible manner, and help reduce load on the national grid.”

Usman Ahmad, CEO, Nizam Energy, commented: “With easy and low cost financing solutions provided by JS Bank, we can further enable customers across Pakistan to avail solar power generation solutions with financing support.”

In other news, the Government of Sindh Province in Pakistan recently rejected submissions from all four bidders in its tender for 352 solar PV systems to electrify primary health facilities. Meanwhile, in February, the Pakistani regulator issued its tariff determinations for 300MW of solar with tariffs significantly below grid parity, for which Nizam was a co-sponser with Scatec Solar for 150MW worth of projects.

[Riaz Haq]

Community-built #hydropower projects lighting up remote areas in #Pakistan, generating 5 to 100 kilowatts of power. Most micro-hydropower projects have a shelf life of up to 20 years but it's extendable. #renewable #energy #electricity https://scroll.in/article/888241/in-pakistans-mountains-community-b... via @scroll_in


Two winters ago was the best winter Zulekha Begum can remember in her 42 years in Swat valley, 150 kilometres northeast of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. “It was the most comfortable winter; our rooms were nice and warm and we had hot water anytime of the day.”


For the first time last winter, her village of Jukhtai, in the idyllic alpine valley, received an uninterrupted supply of electricity thanks to the 65 KW of the micro-hydropower project that the Sarhad Rural Support Programme, an independent development organisation, helped install in their village of 2,300 people.

The Sarhad Rural Support Programme has been working in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since 1989 with the aim of reducing poverty and ensuring sustainable means of livelihood. And since 2004, it has built more than 250 micro-hydro units supplying off-grid communities with cheap, environmentally-friendly and uninterrupted power supply. With financial support from the European Union to produce over 19 MW of electricity, it has benefitted over 570,000 people.

Six years ago, in 2012, the EU (in collaboration with the Pakistan government) started a four-year programme to “revitalise” rural economy and promote renewable energy for sustainable livelihoods in Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This was later extended to 2018.

Pumping in 40 million Euros into areas affected by conflict and natural disasters, the project planned to cover 100 union councils of seven districts (Swat, Shangla, Buner, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Chitral and Malakand) to benefit 2.7 million people affected by conflict and floods.

This fitted closely with the work of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, which was also planning on initiating over 350 units to produce 35 MW of electricity benefiting over 700,000 people by 2017.

In Pakistan, micro-hydropower projects have been led and popularised by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme and the Sarhad Rural Support Programme, both of whom have been recipients of the Ashden international award for their work in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Pakistan’s Kashmir region.

“The way we work with the community is that the latter provides us with land, labour, time even local material like stone, and earth which comes to 20% of the cost while 80% is borne by the SRSP [Sarhad Rural Support Programme],” said Dildar Ahmad, Sarhad’s district programme manager. The micro-hydropower project at Jukhtai (in Swat), cost Pakistani rupee 8,152,154 ($64,275) and provides connections to 315 households and some shops.


According to the Sarhad Rural Support Programme, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government gave them 105 micro-hydropower projects to be completed by December 2018, of which they have completed 90, and the rest are 78% complete. All the EU funded projects were completed by March 2018. Overall, the Sarhad Rural Support Programme says that, since 2009, it “has constructed 332 micro hydro projects, as of July 2017, benefiting approximately 900,000 population in rural areas of Malakand Division and Northern Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.” (Oddly, the graphic accompanying this claim suggests only 331 projects have been completed.)

[Riaz Haq]

#American #renewable #energy company ‘Solar Stik’ to invest in #Pakistan’s #solar #electricity sector by offering off-grid communities its mobile portable and ruggedized solar panel units https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/490198-us-company-solar-stik-to-in...

ISLAMABAD: The US Embassy represented by Mark Russell, commercial counselor in collaboration with NAT Power Pakistan (Private) Limited, who represent the no. 1 US company, ‘Solar Stik’, who manufactures the world’s top grade portable, mobile solar hybrid systems for military and now through Nat Power for commercial sector specially for the off-grid communities of over a 100 million, who have no power or very little, if any, says a press release.

Most of these communities, which are targeted, by NAT Power and ‘Solar Stik’ are in rural Sindh, Baluchistan, Punjab, KPK, Gilgit Baltistan and now FATA Nat Power’s highly sophisticated team beamed Solar Stik right into the hall, where all the guests were seated. By showing them the products, this created complete transparency as to where these products are made and will be sold in Pakistan through Nat Power.

‘Solar Stik’, the US manufacturers also answered during the Q&A’s session directly to the audience who enjoyed the inter action, which boosted their confidence. This was to give the audience the confidence that if these products which are sold to military conflict theaters round the world, including Middle East, Horn of Africa and Afghanistan. It was the first time the audience could ask the questions to the manufacturer directly.

Chairman of NAT Power Pakistan, Muslim Lakhani, explained their business model and the important features of these products, he said, “if these products can last in Afghanistan for over 10 years you can imagine how long it will last in non-conflict areas, perhaps 15 to may be 20 years or more with some upgrades during the 20 years life cycle, the reason being, the products are rugged, hybrid and operate through artificial intelligence, AI. These products can operate in extreme harsh climatic conditions where the temperatures vary from +60 degrees to -20 degrees. Also for the first time in Pakistan, 24VDC batteries made of Lithium Ion and non-spill able led acid batteries.

Muslim Lakhani, explained their business model, which is not in competition with any company who is already in this business, since there is no one in this space of mobile portable and rugged solar units, all vendors are our clients and we welcome new comers who also want to get into this business. Lakhani further explained that this will create lots of jobs and will help with reducing the circular debt.

[Riaz Haq]

Most surprising finding for me

15% HHs have a Solar Panel

20% rural hh report solar panel

In KP rural almost 1 in 2 report having a solar panel

1 in 3 in Sindh rural

Alternate energy sources had a silent revolution in Pakistan?

@syedsalman_t
numbers from govt survey

https://twitter.com/bilalgilani/status/1259530935168614401?s=20

[Riaz Haq]

Imports of solar panels have risen from as little as $1 million in 2004 to a peak of $772 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017. While they have since dropped down to $409 million in fiscal 2019, the country’s imports of solar panels appear to be a strong upward trajectory, growing at an average rate of 15.9% per year in US dollar terms (22.6% per year in Pakistani rupee terms) in the five years between 2014 and 2019.

https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/05/04/solar-is-the-future-...

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The Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) was established as an autonomous body with the aim of promoting and facilitating the exploitation of renewable energy projects in Pakistan. It has been designated as a ‘one-window’ facilitator at the federal level for processing solar projects of all sizes.

The Government of Pakistan’s first steps towards firm support of renewable energy in its energy mix came in 2006 when it made the Policy for Development of Renewable Energy Generation (the 2006 RE Policy). The AEDB has been planning to develop cost-effective alternative and renewable energy-based power generation projects through private investors under the Renewable Energy Policy 2006 on the IPP model (independent power producer).

The Government of Pakistan’s role in all of this has been offering incentives to investors for solar power development in the country. Investors have been presented with rewarding financial incentives that are of key interest for them to come to this market. Provincial governments, particularly the Government of Punjab, have taken the lead on facilitating development of solar power in Pakistan.

The goal that the federal government has set for the AEDB is to ensure 5% of total national power generation capacity to be generated through renewable energy technologies by the year 2030. That may seem like very little and very slow progress, but even that is coming along at a snail’s pace. In addition, under the remote village electrification program, AEDB has been directed to electrify 7,874 remote villages in Sindh and Balochistan provinces through ARE technologies (Alternative and Renewable Energies Technologies). However, there are certain hurdles unique to the industry that make this a difficult task and even 5% solar coverage a big undertaking.

“The future of Pakistan is in renewable energy and the solar industry is top most in this kind of energy. However, the problem in Pakistan is that the rental power station does not let the solar scene grow,” Saeed Hussain explains to us.

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan’s largest #motorcycle maker goes solar with 2.5 MW solar at Sheikupura plant. A large number of manufacturing and assembling units in the country were opting for #renewable energy (captive) generation to secure uninterrupted supply and cut costs. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/728485-pakistan-s-largest-bike-mak...

A large number of manufacturing and assembling units in the country were opting for renewable energy (captive) generation to secure uninterrupted supply and cut costs. Alpha Beta Core CEO Khurram Schehzad said many companies had installed captive power plants to secure uninterrupted power supply and ensure efficiencies. “Earlier, the captive generation was gas-based, but now the gas is a scarce and expensive commodity, so companies are opting for renewable captive generation.”

Several other companies and manufacturing concerns including P&G, Service Industries Limited, Kohinoor Textile Mills, Fauji Cement Company Eni, and DP World have installed solar power generation to meet their energy requirements. In addition to this, several others have entered into bulk power procurement agreements with alternate energy producers, while a large number of sugar millers have already setup biogas plants.

Khurram said gas shortage, lower costs and commitment to a clean environment were compelling companies to switch to alternate energy resources. “Captive renewable energy offers short-term as well as long-term efficiencies while being environment-friendly. Corporate sector should play a leading role in this transition.” Pakistan enjoys a geo-strategic advantage for producing abundant amounts of solar energy.

Hence, solar technology could save millions of dollars for the country’s economic growth, while also offering various ecological benefits.

[Riaz Haq]

Meezan Bank leads PKR 1 Billion Syndicated Islamic Finance Facility For 7 MW Solar Power Project
April 9th, 2022

https://www.meezanbank.com/meezan-bank-leads-pkr-1-billion-syndicat...

Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s leading Islamic bank and Burj Solar Energy Private Limited (BSEPL) are pleased to announce the financial close of PKR 1 billion syndicated Islamic finance facility for BSEPL’s portfolio of renewable distributed power generation in Pakistan. The first tranche of PKR 580 million will be used to finance the construction of 7 MW solar power plant for Power Cement Limited on Karachi Hyderabad Motorway.

Meezan Bank led the transaction as the Mandated Lead Arranger and Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company (Private) Limited participated as the Co-Arranger. The transaction structure is based on State Bank of Pakistan’s Islamic Financing Facility for Renewable Energy (IFRE) and a commercial facility.

The solar power plant will be rented to Power Cement Limited under a twenty-year equipment rental agreement and the solar energy generated will be used by the company’s cement plant in Nooriabad. It will generate 220 GWh solar units for twenty years and in addition to reducing cost of electricity, will offset 112,000 tons of CO2 GHG emissions. The project is expected to start generation in July, 2022.

Legal counsel for the financiers were Mohsin Tayebaly & Co. while Kabraji & Talibuddin Advocates and Legal Counsels acted as BSEPL’s legal counsel. Orient Energy Systems (Private) Limited is the turnkey EPC contractor for the project.

Mr. Ariful Islam, Deputy CEO, Meezan Bank, while commenting on the occasion said,‘Meezan Bank is comitted to actively support and pursue green energy initiatives. Meezan has played a key role the financing of several renewable energy projects aggregating to 380 MW, as Lead or Co-lead manager and also participated in the debt syndications of two large hydro-electric projects being set-up by the Government of Pakistan – Neelum Jhelum and Dasu. Burj Energy is an excellent initiative that will facilitate distributed affordable solar initiatives corporates, small and medium enterprises as well as the individual consumers.’ He said the Meezan has also implemented a number of green initiatives by installing solar at 59 branches branches and 140Kw solar at its Head Office. Its new regional office building in Islamabad is also being designed to be Platinum Lead certified.

Mr. Saad Zaman, Chairman of BSEPL and Burj Energy International Management Limited UAE, said, ‘I am very pleased that we have successfully reached the financial close of the 7 MW solar farm for Power Cement Limited. This is one more success for our company and a significant moment for development of hybrid renewable energy projects in Pakistan. This successful financial close reflects the ongoing interest and trust of leading financial institutions in the Pakistani renewables’ market and Burj Group.’

Mr. Kashif Habib Chief Executive Officer Power Cement Limited, said: ‘Our future is dependent on green, sustainable and renewable source of energy. By installing this 7 MW solar farm, we are taking the first step towards our hybrid solar & wind energy project. We shall keep playing our part in making our production process more environment-friendly and positively impactful for the eco-system we live in. It is high time that we look towards other viable energy options that are clean and green.

[Riaz Haq]

Sindh govt plans to launch floating solar power project on Keenjhar Lake
Solar panels to generate 500MW of electricity after two years

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2365112/sindh-govt-plans-to-launch-flo...

"Work on the feasibility report of the project is in full swing and it is hoped that the project will start generating electricity in two years time after going through the approval stages," said Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, adding that Go Company, which was working on the project, was expected to invest US$400 million in the project.

The energy minister’s statement came during his talk with officials from power companies.

He said that this was a unique floating solar power plant project for Pakistan which would not only provide 500 MW of environmentally friendly electricity but would also create employment opportunities in the province.

"Keenjhar Lake will promote tourism and help in controlling load shedding," he added.

Imtiaz Shaikh said that the 500 MW eco-friendly power project was another milestone of the achievements of the Sindh government.

In recent months, Pakistan has seen efforts to increase the instalment and use of solar panels. The government worked towards a comprehensive solar energy package comprising tax waivers and concessionary loans for consumers in a bid to overcome the prolonged power outages that have stalled life in the country.

The solar package would include a short-term plan for shifting government offices to solar energy. It involves the preparation of a plan for helping small consumers to switch over to solar energy with the help of subsidies or concessionary loans.

The government is also planning to waive the general sales tax on all the components used in generating solar energy.

The energy task force, chaired by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, reviewed the solar power plan in a recent meeting. The prime minister constituted the task force on solar energy initiatives with a vision to promote sustainable and green energy.

[Riaz Haq]

IMF program in Pakistan undermines renewable energy roll-out - Bretton Woods Project

https://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2022/04/imf-programme-in-pakist...

The unprecedented rise in solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in Pakistan’s off-grid and weak grid regions in recent years has been a windfall for vulnerable communities. Buoyed by the GOP’s decision to waive taxes on solar products in 2014, the growth reflects solar’s suitability for powering tube wells, water pumps and purification systems for drinking water and irrigation in remote and water-stressed areas. The primary beneficiaries of this boom have been poor farming communities – especially women – who have historically struggled with access to electricity and water. Solar technology, however, is still a largely import-based market, and growth is likely to be slowed with users unable to meet higher prices.

[Riaz Haq]

Road projects: Sindh prepares projects under PSDP

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2341897/sindh-prepares-projects-under-...

Road sector schemes of over Rs85 billion were discussed and cleared in the meeting for the next federal PSDP. They included construction of the 189km Coastal Highway from Keti Bunder to Ali Bunder and building of the road to connect Shaheed Benazirabad, Sanghar to Matiari district.

Other projects included dualisation of the 31km track from Tando Allahyar to Tando Adam Road, construction of a 150km road from Rahri (Sukkur) to Guddu Barrage via Khanpur Mahar, Jarwar, Mirpur Mathelo and Mohammadpur. Also part of the proposed projects was the construction of a 135km additional carriageway of Mehran Highway (Nawabshah-raniput) and a 40km road from Thatta to Jhimpir.

There was also the construction of a 203km road from Sanghar to Salehpat via Mudh Jamraho up to Rahri Road and the 45km additional carriageway of road from Naudero to Lakhi.