Pakistan: World Bank to provide aid for generating 350MW of clean electricity for Karachi
2 solar parks will be established in suburbs of Karachi, each on a 600-acre land
Karachi: The World Bank will provide funding to utilise solar power for generating 350 Megawatts of clean electricity for the residents of Karachi.
In this regard, the World Bank, the Sindh government, and Karachi’s privatised power utility, the K-Electric, have entered into a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU).
The project to produce clean electricity for consumers in Karachi is a part of the Sindh Solar Energy Project (SSEP).
Under the initiative, two solar parks will be established in suburbs of Karachi each having the area of 600 acres. One of the parks will be established in Maghopir area of District West and the other clean energy facility will be set up in District Malir of Karachi. Each of the park will generate 175 MWs of clean electricity. The project is expected to be completed in two years with a cost of $40 million.
The Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company, which is a subsidiary of Sindh government’s Energy Department, will lay the transmission line for evacuation of electricity from the solar parks. The K-Electric will be the buyer of the clean electricity and will also establish grid stations for the purpose.
Sindh Energy Minister, Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, said the provincial government is committed to utilise renewable and indigenous resources for clean power generation for the people of Sindh.
He said the utilisation of the solar power would go a long way to protect the Karachi’s environment and also bring down the cost of electricity for the power consumers in the city.
He said the Sindh government had been making speedy progress to utilise solar power to generate electricity as per the international environmental standards.
The Energy Minister mentioned that after establishing solar parks in Karachi, similar clean energy facilities would be established in Hyderabad, Larkana, Sukkur, and other cities of Sindh.
The MoU was signed by the K-Electric’s CEO, Moonis Abdullah Alvi, and Sindh government’s Energy Secretary Abu Bakar Madani. The World Bank’s Country Director in Pakistan, Najy Benhassine, attended the MoU signing ceremony virtually.
The SSEP is also being implemented to use the rooftops of the government buildings especially public sector hospitals for installing solar panels and provision of solar home systems to energise off-grid residential areas of Sindh.