FAISALABAD: Pakistan needs cheap solar electricity to meet its future needs of energy and in this connection foreign companies must present viable and cost effective projects, said Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI).
He was talking to Dr. Nidal, Consultant Digital World International Corporation who met him in FCCI here today.
Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz said that Pakistan is energy starved country and its demand was increasing at the rate of 10 percent per annum. “According to conservative estimates, this situation is going to prevail for another decade as the commissioning of proposed power plants will only partly reduce the duration of load shedding within next three to four years”, he added.
He said that most parts of Pakistan have sunlight from 14 to 16 hours per day and this unlimited and free source of nature could be easily utilized to meet our energy needs. He suggested that sun light available from dawn till dusk should be capitalized by providing direct invertors excluding the component of storage batteries. “It will not only bring down the overall cost of solar system but also lessen burden on national grid”, he said, adding that affordable families could enjoy the storage facility by paying extra money. He further said that the electricity thus saved could be diverted to industrial sector for productive use.
He suggested that “Rural Solar” project should also be launched which had already proven success by many small, domestic and commercial users in Faisalabad area. He said that this industry should be exempted from all taxed and duties in order to further bring down its price and serve millions of people belonging to lower strata.
He said that solar plants could also be leased out through leasing companies on mutually agreed terms and conditions or on cost sharing or on existing electricity bill basis.
Earlier Dr. Nidal briefed him about his company and told that Digital World International Corporation was interested to make huge investment in Pakistan provided its return with profit could be assured by the government.
