ISLAMABAD   -  As Pakistan strides towards a future defined by sustainable development and energy security, the spotlight turns to a diverse array of renewable energy (RE) sources including hydropower, wind, solar, and bagasse.

These resources collectively emerge as pillars of hope in Pakistan’s quest for a greener and more resilient energy landscape to curtail ever-increasing country’s fuel import bill and materialize the dream of affordable energy. As the present government buttress efforts to tap the potential of clean energy, particularly solar, launching of its National Solar Energy Initiative, aims at tapping this rich potential to replace costly hydel energy with cheaper solar power.

“With its favorable geographical location and abundant natural resources, Pakistan has vast potential for renewable energy, boasting of over 64,000 MW hydel and up to 2.9 million MW of solar energy,” remarked Managing Director Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) Dr Shah Jahan Mirza.

“Then we have an inexhaustible supply of wind power reaching up to 132,000 MW potential and 175 billion-ton Thar Coal Reserve as a cost-effective indigenous fuel option for base load power generation for decades,” Mirza said. He said the government is focusing on harnessing these resources to curb emission of greenhouse by 2030 with hopes that renewable energy contributes to affordable electricity nationwide and stabilizes energy prices in the long run.

It also aligns with the United Nations SDGs, particularly Goal 7 by promoting access to clean energy, alleviating poverty, addressing climate change and access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, Mirza explained.

PPIB is a policy implementing agency of the government, focusing on clean and indigenous power generation and facilitates installation of private sector power plants in hydropower, solar, wind and Bagasse. Dr Shah Jahan informed that pursuant to IGCEP 2022-31, the proposed share of renewable energy resources is 12,926 MW solar and 6,767 MW wind as the share of hydropower in national energy mix will be increased from 25% to 33%; from 10,847 MW to 22,701 MW. “This indicates that total share of clean and green energy in domestic installed capacity is targeted to be 62% by 2031.”

He said the Framework Guidelines for Fast-Track Solar PV Initiatives 2022 had already been launched to address the impact of high international oil and LNG prices on electricity tariffs and foreign exchange reserves. “These initiatives include, substitution of expensive imported fossil fuels with Solar PV Energy, Solar PV Generation on 11 kV Feeders and solarization of public buildings.” It is worth mentioning that to reduce high electricity tariffs and drain of precious foreign exchange, the Government approved Framework Guidelines for Fast-Track Solar PV Initiatives 2022 for deployment of solar PV. Therefore, a 600 MW solar project is planned for Kot Addu/ Muzaffargarh on G2G mode and the same has been offered to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Decentralized, medium-scale Solar PV power can contribute cost-efficiently to alleviate some of these problems by feeding directly into the medium-voltage (MV) network, thereby improving the local losses and voltage situation.

Accordingly, Solar PV projects of suitable capacity up to maximum 4 MW will be procured through competitive bidding process at 11 kV feeder level expecting that approximately 2000 MW solar PV capacity will be added under this initiative.

As solarization of public sector buildings is also hoped to electricity load sharing and reduce electricity bills of public offices, building-specific Solar PV netmetering based systems are being installed, through bidding and it is expected to install 1000 MW rooftop based solar PV capacity.

Meanwhile, as of March 2024, number of net-metering-based solar installations has reached to 130,935, with a cumulative capacity of 1,985 MW. The PPIB firmly believes that renewables are pivotal to Pakistan’s energy future and the nation is poised to embark on a journey to promoting renewable energy sources.

Energy expert Engr. Aslam Khan remarked, Pakistan receives one of the best solar irradiation in the world with a potential to generate over 2.324 million MWs electricity annually through solar thermal and photovoltaic systems. “Solar irradiation in Pakistan and India stand at 1,900 Kwh/m2, against China’s 1,500 Kwh/m2 and Germany’s 1,200 Kwh/m2,” he stated. “India has already installed solar power projects worth 84.28 Gigawatt (GW), China 216 GW and Germany 47,198 megawatt (MW). “But, we are yet to tap this potential.”

He appreciated the government steps for renewable energy and said, it would reduce fuel import bill and ensure cleaner environment. “Transparent solar is a cutting-edge technology that use light energy through windows or any glass surface regardless of angle and has potential to be a game-changer in broadening scope of solar energy.”

Meanwhile, the researchers have created several means of transparent solar technology including photovoltaic glass, made to absorb specific UV and infrared light wavelengths not visible to naked eye and transform them into energy.

CEO of 3 Ray Solution, Imran Imtiaz Butt states that approximately 1.5 hours of continuous sunlight falling on earth was enough to resolve global energy crisis. “Every second around 173,000 terawatts solar energy reaching the earth surface can easily provide 10,000 times of electricity currently produced globally.”