CPEC fruit: 1,320MW project initiated
It has been ten years since the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the multibillion-dollar flagship project under President Xi Jinping’s $1.4 trillion Belt and Road Initiative, was launched. PHOTO: FILE
As Pakistan’s energy import bill touched an exorbitant $27 billion, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif underlined the need to explore indigenous resources including hydel, solar, air and coal to produce cheap electricity.
Federal Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan stated that a 1,320MW project has been initiated by the Shanghai Electric Group in Thar to use indigenous coal for electricity production.
“The plants have been connected to the national grid,” and that the initiative “was borne from the fruit of CPEC projects,” he observed.
Pakistan is suffering from the impact of the greenhouse effect, so green power generation is the trend. PM Sharif also revealed that the incumbent government has prepared a plan to generate 10,000MW of electricity through solar energy.
“We know that Pakistan is rich in solar and wind resources,” said Wang Haowei from Shanghai Electric, the Business Manager of the Zhang Jiakou Green Power Project. “The installed capacity of the project is 150 MW wind power, 30 MW photovoltaic power and 10 MW energy storage.”
THE ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON THE CHINA ECONOMIC NET
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2022.
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