LAHORE: The government has been urged to increase solar power generation up to 20,000 megawatt.
The Pakistan Solar Association (PSA) has suggested the government to formulate Pakistan Solar Mission Plan 2015-26 on the pattern of Nehru National Solar Mission Plan of India.
PSA Chairman Engineer Faiz M Bhutta appreciated Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s vital initiative of switching 6000 govt primary schools over to solar energy. However, he added, the govt should expand the scope of this public welfare-oriented project to hospitals, basic health units and other sectors of society as well.
Elaborating the Pakistan Solar Mission Plan, Faiz Bhutta called for dividing this plan to three phases of four years each having an accumulative power generation target of 20,000MW.
The proposed plan, he said, should also envisage an easy access to solar off-grid and hybrid power for solar lighting of houses and roads of urban and rural areas; solar pumping (tube-well), utility grade PV and solar thermal power plants.
The PSA Chairman said that under the Solar Mission Plan, the government must focus standardization, quality assurance, duty-free import of relevant equipment, preparation of manpower for solar sector, incentives and subsidies for investors, bank loans on low mark-up and bank financing for utility grade projects, besides, taking all stakeholders on board during formulation of the plan.
