Pakistan, China agree to expedite work on Bahawalpur solar project

Dawn.com Published June 27, 2015

LAHORE: Pakistan and China have agreed to gear up work on generating 900 megawatts of electricity in Bahawalpur Solar Power Park, said a report published on Radio Pakistan.

The understanding came during a meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and a Chinese delegation in Lahore today.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said the solar power park project is part of the China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC).

He said the project will be completed by 2016 while 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity will be generated from the power park by the end of this year.

Read: PM Nawaz inaugurates country's first solar park

Shahbaz also said the Chinese company will be provided all possible facilities for timely completion of the project as per the best international standards.

In the first phase, at least 0.5 million solar panels were installed in three blocks over 500 acres of the solar park land.

Earlier, the infrastructure for the park, including a boundary wall, buildings and roads were constructed while water was taken to the site from a nearby canal. The construction work of the first phase of 100MW had been completed earlier in the year.

Also read: Bahawalpur to have $1.5bn world’s largest solar power plant

The second and third units of the solar park comprise 300MW and 600MW, respectively. The work on these two units had been jointly inaugurated during by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the latter's visit in March.

The second phase is expected to be completed in the beginning of next year followed by work on the third phase.

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aceleaf

Jun 27, 2015 01:32pm

This is not the way to control the energy crisis. If you don't want to be too late, apply more conventional way like hydro projects.

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HAIDER REHMAN REAL

Jun 27, 2015 01:42pm

Good JOb by Shahbaz as always.

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Harmony-1

Jun 27, 2015 01:45pm

@aceleaf - What? There is nothing wrong in speeding up this project. Others can run side by side.

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Umer

Jun 27, 2015 02:07pm

Good news. Better than nothing.....

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abrar

Jun 27, 2015 02:24pm

@aceleaf you should investigate how much solar energy germany , china and india are producing with solar, solar is the future as it does not produce CO2 emissions which lead to higher temperature, large hydro projects have huge environmental foot print and are controversial world wide.

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azzy

Jun 27, 2015 02:27pm

@aceleaf Always quick to criticize. Tell me who else has done ANYTHING to solve the problem? Shahbaz Sharif can at least do something.

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Malik

Jun 27, 2015 03:12pm

Solar panels project of 1000 mw without Invertors and batteries for storage. Strange? Strange? Strange?

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Aamer Khawaja

Jun 27, 2015 03:33pm

@Malik where does it say that no inverters are being used? Do you even understand what an inverter is & that its actually not possible to utilize the energy produced by solar panels without an inverter?

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M.Shah

Jun 27, 2015 04:06pm

Although I am not a supporter of the current regime but you got to give credit where it is deserved. On the other hand, thanks to PTI for keeping up the pressure, if only PMLN had done this when they were is opposition, things would've been a bit better now. But anyway, whoever works for Pakistan will surely be appreciated.

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Falcon

Jun 27, 2015 04:44pm

Good to hear progress on this project. However, I do believe that Pakistani engineers should be part of this project's implementation team so that they can learn this technology and expand on it.

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zafar

Jun 27, 2015 05:14pm

Speeding up a Solar project - that is a misnomer. What does it take to erect a few solar panels, and add some inverters? I don't understand the logic of this project. Money could have been better spent to use Solar panels to generate power for tube wells, one well at a time, taking them off the grid. That way, there are no transmission losses, no dependence on expensive power and no downtime due to load shedding. KPK is currently in the process of taking over 200 tube wells energy independent by converting them to Solar.

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Cyrus

Jun 27, 2015 05:17pm

China has a reason for doing this - to develop the technology. If Pakistan's engineers are smart they will keep a close eye on the proceedings, even take one apart to see how they are designed, and fully document construction.

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munsif

Jun 27, 2015 05:58pm

you need extra maintenance staff for this solar power park, and then the electricity you generated , with a lot of hard work, and sophisticated solar panels, how you would prevent its misuse, how would you work out maintenance expenses, and revenue, you need to manswer all these questions, this electricity is not for the bunglows of generals, and politician palaces.

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Arslan

Jun 27, 2015 06:12pm

This is for private groups of industries and public gets nothing from it. 100MW produced from it right now is for sole use of these companies. Guess who the owners are?

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Naved

Jun 27, 2015 06:40pm

It is an expensive solution, not suitable for the poor Pakistani nation.

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Objective

Jun 27, 2015 06:46pm

Good job. To all the cynics and those hatching conspiracy theories - one should give credit where due. Negativity can cause great harm to the nation and undermine good efforts of the government and people of Pakistan.

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Shahid

Jun 27, 2015 07:01pm

After Nandipur it is the second most foolish project to do. A 1000 MW installation would only give 300 MW on average counting on morning, evening and night times. It could have been much better to subsidize these pannels to half its price and get them installed at tube wells or even at office buildings. This way, government could easily cut its investment to half.

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Shaffiq

Jun 27, 2015 07:08pm

Fix the distribution system first

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Jun 27, 2015 07:33pm

@Malik ignorant blind criticism for the sake of criticism. A solar panel can not work without an inverter. 98% efficient inverters are currently being used at the solar park. As for batteries, no country in the world uses batteries with a solar park at such a massive scale

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Mahesh

Jun 27, 2015 07:45pm

Solar power although is a future, is right now expensive. The recovery time for the huge investment made is long (3 decades or more). So there are pluses and minuses.

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daar

Jun 27, 2015 08:00pm

Circular debt can not be controlled unless cheaper hydroelectric resources are exhausted.

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Jun 27, 2015 08:50pm

Sir, Shahbaz is dreaming again of big future of the Pakistan. This man can do nothing.

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Jun 27, 2015 09:18pm

@aceleaf there are two major hydro projects (Dasu and Diamer-Basha) underway. But they are strictly long term and can not be completed before 2019. In 4 years, the demand and supply gap will continue to increase and this is extremely critical and the need of the hour. Criticize the government where you want, but this is an amazing initiative. Kudos!

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San

Jun 27, 2015 09:29pm

Instead of spending billions on installation of Solar Park and spending millions on maintanance, why can't Govt. provide Solar power equipments to individual homes/ fields on rental basis and collect revenue based on the usages. This is because 1.Solar energy is available everywhere, not like thermal or hydro-electric powers, from which power can be generated at one location and distributed. 2. It saves transmission cost and losses. 3. It also saves maintenance cost too.

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Jun 27, 2015 10:29pm

@San The government set up the 100MW to attract investors because this is something Pakistan can not afford to do on its own at a large scale. The rest of the investment is being done by a Chinese company (Zonergy I think) under the China-Pak economic corridor. So let's take a step back from floating ideas and appreciate something commendable that is happening in the country for once.

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adnan

Jun 27, 2015 10:36pm

When are we going to end our dependence on China and stop importing their junk. Look at what India is doing. Private companies from Japan abd Taiwan investing $20 billion in solar power. These companies want to make money and if we provide them the right environment they will bring a better technology to Pakistan. -- SoftBank, Foxconn Pledge $20 Billion Solar Power Investment In India http://cleantechnica.com/2015/06/25/softbank-foxconn-pledge-20-billion-solar-power-investment-india/

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Euro

Jun 27, 2015 11:49pm

Not good to put such a big investment so close to the border. There are many other sunny areas available across Pakistan.

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zafar

Jun 28, 2015 12:17am

@M Have you checked the amount of money allocated to Diamer-Bhasha and Dasu in this year's budget? Developing hydropower is not a priority for this government as they won't be able to claim any credit for it. They are only looking for quick fixes and failing miserably.

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Zain

Jun 28, 2015 12:41am

Hurray !!!! Here comes more subsidies and wait there's more.. People now pay 0.70% tax on everything but wait there's more.. 5% tax coming up as well and will implied on every salaried person.. Kudos to you nawaz you have saved our country from misery and definitely you will be getting more votes next term..

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Mohammed Khattana

Jun 28, 2015 12:43am

I just hope it gets done,just fed up with so many lies, I have come to a point just don't know who to belie any more

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daar

Jun 28, 2015 01:10am

@M These strictly long term projects can not be completed till 2019 because personal money making expensive short term plans were implemented only for individual and political gains. Long term cheap hydroelectric projects were delayed in past with similar short term demand fulfillment philosophy. Same mind set is working again, Produce expansive extra energy that cannot be used due to higher cost leading to ever expanding circular debt. Energy is the life of all industry, expansive energy leads to expansive products, difficult to market, increasing worsening frustration and debt.

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shoukat sheikh

Jun 28, 2015 02:18am

thank you China and Mr Shabaz Shareef

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Akhtar

Jun 28, 2015 03:43am

Good to see these projects. Once installed they will provide free power.

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Saqib Ali

Jun 28, 2015 04:18am

PMLn is doing a good. Shahbaz Sharif has transformed through hard work and it seems his government is doing something to ease loadshedding.

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TRUTH

Jun 28, 2015 05:46am

Solar Power projects are for smaller use which is still very good for other needs such as street lamps and emergency, etc and every house hold needs these on top of their roofs for emergency use or help the poor who cant afford to pay bills. Pakistan needs much more Coal, Nuclear, Dams, etc but so far no improvement.

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