Editorial

Solar power hits the grid

Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park proves that solar is now cheaper than installing a run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plant

Editorial May 08, 2015

Nawaz Sharif is briefed about the solar power plant. PHOTO: PPI

Given the rapidly growing energy needs of the country, 100MW of new power generation capacity sounds like a drop in the bucket. Strictly from the perspective of demand and supply, that may well be true. Nonetheless, the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park project is important and may well represent the future of energy in Pakistan. It is the first grid-scale solar power project to be inducted into the energy supply system. But that is not the only reason we are enthusiastic about it. What we like most is the price tag: $131 million to add 100 MW of capacity, or about $1.31 dollars per watt. That puts this project at only slightly above the cost of installing a thermal power plant, but with the added benefit of never requiring any money to be spent on fuel and only a minimal amount of money spent every year on maintenance. In other words, what this means is that solar power is on the verge of becoming competitive against thermal power on an amortised basis.

The argument against solar power has always been about its enormous installation costs, and the fact that it is not yet possible to store large amounts of electricity during the day time to run at night. The Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park project proves that at least the first charge is no longer true. Solar is now cheaper than installing even a run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plant. And while energy storage technology is still some years away from rendering thermal power obsolete, significant strides have been made recently, not least of which was the announcement last week by Tesla Motors, a US-based electric car manufacturer, that it has developed an economically feasible battery solution for home installation. With these technological developments and economic headwinds clearly moving in favour of solar energy, it is a shame that the government has announced that it will not be authorising any new alternative energy sources, focusing entirely on gas-fired thermal energy. Such shortsightedness may well prove costly. We do hope that this project will cause the government to reconsider that ill-thought-out policy.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2015.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.

COMMENTS (2)

Eubee | 9 years ago | Reply Technically speaking, the amount of electricity that you can generate from PhotoVoltaic or PV solar panels depend on the DNI or the amount of solar exposure in that particular area. This can be measured in KiloWatthours per meter square per day. Since Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park is located in Bahawalpur area which has pretty good DNI, it can be deduced safely that this 100MW solar plant can produce up to its mentioned capacity. Had this been deployed in Baluchistan area, the output would have been much much greater than this one bcause Baluchistan area has the highest DNI in Pakistan.

Woz Ahmed | 9 years ago | Reply I may be wrong, maybe someone with an engineering background can confirm, but a 100mw solar facility will only generate about 25 mw, because of efficiently and peak sunlight hours . Also we are paying the Chinese 19 rupees per kW, whilst Indians and UAE recently paid 6 U.S. cents per kW. So grid parity even if achieved , benefits will not be reaped by the nation. But long term, under competitive, non corrupt, conditions, no doubt solar will be a game changer.

Replying to X