PM Nawaz and Chinese President inaugurate solar power generation plant at Parliament House. PHOTO: NNI
ISLAMABAD: Half of the sprawling Parliament House’s electricity needs will soon be met by the sun.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday inaugurated a one megawatt solar power generation system at Parliament House. The panels will be installed on the roof of the building.
The Chinese-funded project would significantly reduce the building’s dependence on the national grid.
“[With the inauguration of the solar project] Pakistan’s Parliament building has become the first parliament in the world to go green,” claimed National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in his welcome address to a joint sitting of the parliament on Tuesday, which was later addressed by Jinping.
“Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET) had worked out the electricity requirements of Parliament House at two MW,” says a media brief about the project issued by the National Assembly.
The estimated cost of the project is Rs280.61 million, which will be fully-funded by the Chinese government, while a completion date has not been announced. Savings on electricity bills will amount to parliament building will be up to Rs28 million per annum.
The document says that the solar electrification of the parliament building will save approximately 2,500 tons of carbon dioxide per annum with a carbon credit of Rs3.4 million per annum if the project gets registered under the Clean Development Mechanism.
Earlier, an energy-efficiency audit, conducted on the direction of the National Assembly speaker, had suggested curtailing the power demand of parliament building by 50 per cent while reducing the energy loses by converting to renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic solar power.
“This achievement is yet another milestone in the long list of “world’s first”, which our two countries have jointly accomplished,” Ayaz Sadiq said. On October 30, 2014, Sadiq signed a Letter of Exchange between China and Pakistan for installation of this project.
Power demand for the house rises to 2.3 MW in the summer due to the additional load of air conditioners and other cooling equipment.
Inaugurated on May 28, 1986, Parliament House was designed by American Architect Edward Durel Stone. The five-storey building has a total floor area of around 598,000 sq feet.
The Indian Parliament inaugurated a solar power system at the house in August 2011, While Israel’s Knesset saw the inauguration of a 450KW solar power system in March 2015.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 22nd, 2015.
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