Conergy onboard for largest solar project

To provide overall planning, engineering and design input.

KARACHI:

Conergy has partnered with energy solutions provider and project developer Ensunt to implement a 50 megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Bahawalpur for the DACC Power Generation Company Limited (DPGCL).

The project will be the largest of its kind in Pakistan. It is co-owned by DPGCL and the Pakistani government, which have now taken Conergy on board to provide overall planning, engineering and design.

On the occasion, DPGCL President Doug Melvin said: “The 50MW plant is the biggest solar project for the Pakistani government.”

“Currently, the region is heavily dependent on hydroelectric plants, which results in high fluctuations in energy supply, power outages and shortages,” he opined. “We are even looking beyond [a] 50MW [generation capacity].”

“Potential in Pakistan is enormous. Currently, only 63% of the country’s total population is supplied with power. Due to its decentralised nature and high insulation levels, solar energy is ideally suited to close this gap and supply safe, clean, affordable energy,” remarked Conergy Board Member Marc Lohoff

Once the plant is completed, 210,000 Conergy PowerPlus modules on around 210 kilometres of SolarLine mounting systems will produce more than 78 gigawatt hours of clean energy per year.

Over 140 Conergy IPG 300C central inverters will then feed the generated power into Pakistan’s grid, supplying 30,500 households with power. Besides private households, agriculture will also benefit by using the electricity generated to run pumps to water fields and crops.

Due to shortages, parts of the country are occasionally left without energy supply for up to 18 hours a day, resulting in lower productivity, economic instability, social unrest. The government has recently scrapped the import duty on solar systems, creating investment incentives for solar plants.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2012.