ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday met senior Chinese business officials and invited them to become part of a new ‘National Solar Energy Initiative,’ state media reported.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the initiative in September last year, saying the program would help generate 10,000 MW solar power and “substitute costly energy with cheap solar power, which will provide massive relief to people and save precious foreign exchange.”
The solar initiative aims to start off by switching government buildings and tube wells from diesel to solar power, while power plants operating on diesel, coal and furnace oil will also be partially replaced.
“Iqbal briefed the Chinese companies about Prime Minister’ ‘solar energy initiative’ for which foreign investors were offered special incentives,” the APP news agency reported about the planning minister’s meeting with Chen Diming, chairman of the China Apollo Holding Group, and Xu Hao, a senior representative of the China Ocean Engineering Construction Company.
“The minister invited the Chinese companies to benefit from this new policy.”
“He underscored the importance of energy projects which have enabled Pakistan to overcome its energy shortages and urged them to invest in solar power generation and establishment of solar manufacturing plants in Pakistan to achieve better efficiency and wider distribution of cheaper electricity,” APP added.
Pakistan’s current energy mix is about 58 percent fossil fuels, 30 percent hydropower and 10 percent renewables and nuclear power. Pakistan has vowed to produce 60 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
Last month, Pakistan and China signed a $4.8 billion deal to build a 1,200-megawatt nuclear power plant, the Chashma 5 project.
Pakistan's total nuclear energy production capacity rose to 1,400 MW when the country's sixth nuclear power plant opened two years ago. Located in the southern port city of Karachi, that 1,100 mw plant was also constructed with Chinese assistance.
Since 2015, Beijing has pledged $65 billion in infrastructure and energy projects for Pakistan under its Belt and Road Initiative.
