For years Pakistan have been
struggling hard to overcome the energy crisis and in order to get rid of the
crisis Punjab government is playing a front role to minimize the increasing gap
of supply and demand by opting different alternative sources to generate
electricity. In this rich soil, we have bunch of natural resources which, if we
may utilize, we could generate much electricity, and no doubt solar energy is
among one of them. Government has planned to harness the sun’s ferocious heat to
help tackle the country’s chronic energy crisis and Quaid-e-Azam solar power
park is one of the best examples of using natural resources to generate
electricity.
The Punjab government, in collaboration with German companies, has launched a
solar power project in a corner of the Cholistan desert and allocated about 6500
acres of land for this solar power project. The provincial government has spent
$5 million to put in place the infrastructure for the transformation of the
desolate area into one of the world's largest solar power parks, which would be
capable of generating up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity. This is a great
imitative to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in generation of electricity and to
overcome the ever expanding gap between production and demand. The scope of the
project includes making the full use of natural resources like small hydro,
solar photovoltaic and wind power generation.
By the end of this year, first phase of the project (pilot project) will be
completed that will start producing 100 MW of electricity and after the
completion of first phase; the government will invite investors for the 1,000
megawatts. Currently there are up to 20 companies who are investing in this
project and their projects are in the completion stage. Some companies are
working on 50 MW, some on 10 and others on 20 MW. Prime Minister, on 09 May,
2014 launched the first phase of Quaid-e-Azam solar power park 1000 MW project
which by the end of this year will be capable of producing 100 MW of
electricity.
Arshad Abbasi, an energy expert at Islamabad's Sustainable Development Policy
Institute (SDPI), said the cost of generating solar power from this project may
be uneconomical for the government.
Cholistan receives a lot of sunshine and have long shiny days in each season
which makes the project feasible and more economical and keeping in view the
climatic conditions of the desert area, government have planned to install solar
power plants in Cholostian and get the full benefits of this deserted hot area.
Keeping in view the efficiency and role of the project in fighting with the
power crisis, Cholistan solar power project would be very successful project in
its nature and would help the government to stabilize the demand and supply side
of electricity, however measures should be taken to make the project transparent
and corruption free because infrastructure of this project is a bit costly.
Electricity should be provided to the natives and farmers of Cholistan so that
they could also get benefit of this solar electricity. Government should also
look forward for more energy alternatives (wind power) to save our next
generation from power crisis.