Pakistan's Solar Park Project to Expand to 1,500 Megawatts

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has inaugurated the country's first solar-power park at Quaid-e-Azam, and the first 100-megawatt (MW) phase of the project should be generating power by the end this year.

The first phase will have 400,000 solar panels, with an investment of $131 million. The 300-MW second phase would have an investment of $600 million, and the 600-MW third phase would require $1.2 billion. Upon completion in 2016-17, the solar park would have a total capacity of 1,000 MW, making it one of the largest solar parks in the world.

"If you come here in 18 months, you will see a river of solar panels, residential buildings and offices--it will be a new world," said Site Engineer Muhammad Sajid.

The prime minister said that Pakistan's dearth of electricity had pushed the country backward, and its entire industry--especially the agricultural sector--had suffered.

Supply shortages regularly leave people without power for long periods in the day, while half the country's households are not even connected to the national grid, according to the World Bank (Washington D.C.). With high temperatures in the summer, electricity supply can fall short of demand by as much as 4,000 MW.

The journal Climatic Change found that people are migrating out of the country for climate-related reasons, such as flooding, heat stress and the negative effects on agriculture. But low rainfall and high solar radiation make the Punjab desert site well-suited to the solar project.

At a meeting following the solar park inauguration, the prime minister approved the expansion of the project from 10,000 acres to 15,000 acres, and an increase in capacity from 1,000 MW to 1,500 MW.

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