46 sites selected for small solar projects

E-Paper | July 14, 2026

LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says that there is a vast scope of power generation from solar energy in Punjab and 46 sites have been selected for setting up small solar projects.

He was presiding over a meeting which reviewed the prospects of setting up solar energy projects in the province, a handout said here on Sunday.

German solar expert Dr Gerwin and Additional Chief Secretary Energy Jehanzeb Khan gave a briefing to the meeting on small solar power projects.

Know more: Solar park area, capacity enhanced

Addressing the meeting, Shahbaz said resolving the energy crisis was essential for eliminating poverty and unemployment from the country.

The chief minister said solar projects of one to 50 megawatts would play an important role in minimising the power shortage. He asked the departments concerned to spare no effort for speedy implementation of small solar projects, seeking immediate measures for speedy execution by forming a team.

Shahbaz said the Punjab government was initially setting up a 100-megawatt solar project, Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park Bahawalpur, with its own resources and it would start producing electricity by the end of the current year. The Punjab government was also working on coal, hydel, biogas, biomass and other projects of generation of power from alternative sources.

The chief minister said untimely protests and sit-ins had wasted a lot of precious time of the nation and there was no room for further delay. He said that collective efforts were needed to remove darkness from the country and the departments and institutions concerned would have to perform their duty in this regard with a renewed spirit. He said the energy crisis had badly affected education, health, agriculture and other social sectors, adding that resolving of energy problem was vital for promotion of industrialisation.

CM’s Advisor Azmul Haq, senior member board of revenue, additional chief secretary energy, managing director of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company and officers of Mepco, Fesco, Nepra and Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park were also present.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2014

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Muhammad

Oct 13, 2014 07:31am

Pakistan should allow grid solar set-ups instead. It will reduce battery maintenance cost and will save losses due to power storage. This is what has already been successful set-up in Australia where household are allowed to set-up their own solar systems and they are attached to national grid and households get a payback on energy fed into national grid.

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riaz akbar

Oct 13, 2014 07:49am

This is no doubt a right step to select 46 sites for solar energy projects but it took considerable time to decide about this initiative. The first and foremost requirement is to either manufacture solar panels locally or joint venture with competent foreign company as Chinese can help us in setting plants in Pakistan. The import of solar panel will be not cost effective for 46 sites of solar projects as well as future requirements.

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dannish

Oct 13, 2014 07:55am

Excellent, I hope our Sindh CM Shah will follow the lead. I wish Shah will retire soon and let someone else from PPP do a better job then him. He is the most useless CM in Sindh's history.

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Naeem

Oct 13, 2014 10:18am

@Muhammad Our government is least interested in measures that cost little or nothing, because if it costs nothing, there is no money to be made from kickbacks or contracts handed over to their favourite contractors. A feed-in tariff was the first thing this government should have approved if they were really interested in promoting renewable energy and energy self sufficiency. The feed-in tariff will encourage ordinary households to switch to solar and feed energy into the national grid. Even countries like Bangladesh and India have approved feed-in tariff for renewable energy. But vested interests don't want to do anything that helps the consumer reduce their dependance on grid power and break the monopoly of IPPs

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Shahid

Oct 13, 2014 12:50pm

Solar power is produced by converting sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaic (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP) which use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. It is not only affordable and clean source of energy but can also increase a country’s energy security through reliance on an indigenous, sustainable and inexhaustible resource. At the same time it will reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating climate change. Because of these advantages of solar energy its global production is projected to triple in next five years reaching 450 gigawatts by 2020.However centralized generation of solar energy is sheer wastage of resources because of less than 20 % of their conversion efficiency and huge line losses . It should be encouraged only at household level with 50% subsidy by the state for installation of solar panels at the roof tops/gardens.Excess electricity be purchased by WAPDA .This is the model successfully adopted by UK and Germany.

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syed wasim haider

Oct 13, 2014 01:38pm

Very good effort. In India they encouraged to have Solar System in every house and they give a good amount of subsidy on it. They save lot of money in long term. Why can't we have this in our country?

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