Netline aims to make solar power accessible with Made-in-Pakistan panels

Islamabad: Solar power currently generates only a fraction of the country’s overall electricity but the trend continues to grow. Pakistan is rapidly accelerating the shift to renewable energy such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric, to cut dependence on costly fuel and free the economy from volatile fuel prices, and curb energy costs.

To realize this vision, a Pakistani solar energy pioneer Netline has unveiled renewable energy ambitions with a big solar push to boost domestic solar manufacturing and accelerate the country’s shift from imported fuels to clean energy.

Netline is gearing up to build a modern solar panel manufacturing facility on a three-acre industrial land on the outskirts of Islamabad with a 180MW (megawatts) of electricity generation capacity annually. The factory will be built using technology initially imported from Turkey. The nearly $30 million factory will be built in three phases with the last phase costing the largest amount of $20 million as it will involve the mining of quartz — a crystalline mineral composed of silica used for solar panel manufacturing. The facility is expected to be completed in 2026 which will “localise the solar panel production in Pakistan”, Umair Zavary, the group director for the Netline group of companies, told Gulf News.

Netline has so far installed solar systems with a power generation capacity of almost 15MW with 400 active locations across the country from Skardu to Karachi.

Pakistan’s Netline is also designing solar projects for Saudi Arabia’s $500 billion Neom smart city which has a renewable energy demand of around 20 gigawatts. Zavary said the company had initially acquired a $3 million project to design Neom’s electrical system.

“In February, we will visit Riyadh to grow business and look for more partners and opportunities,” Zavary said. If the company wins the award for a new contract, it would then send a team of Pakistani engineers and experts to Saudi Arabia for installation purposes. Netline also collaborates with companies in the US, UK, and Singapore for engineering outsourcing, and designing of solar projects and is hoping to sign a contract with one of the largest supply chain companies in the world.

Netline, the power and energy solutions specialist company owned by Karachi’s Zavary family, plans to begin manufacturing solar panels in Pakistan to “meet the local demand” and eventually “to make Pakistan an exporter of solar panels”. Zavary said that the “future of solar is bright” in Pakistan. The country’s current challenges with the import of oil for energy validate his claims.

Netline aims to become the leading “high-quality locally sourced and produced renewable energy company.” To achieve this goal, the company will utilise local raw materials for solar panels, mainly quartz, which is abundantly available in Pakistan. Quartz — the second most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust — is the leading source of silicon which is the key material in manufacturing photovoltaic solar cells.

“The basic components needed for solar panel production are available in Pakistan. All we need is proper planning and execution” he said. The core components of solar panel installations are panels, racking, inverter, power system, and batteries.

The biggest challenge, Zavary says, will be “creating a domestic supply chain” for solar energy where all the materials are produced locally. For instance, “solar panels are made of thin, toughened glass that does not allow dust accumulation on panels”. When Netline contacted local glass manufacturers, they said the glass can be developed locally but “only if there is enough local demand.”

The company now plans to request the government to allow the import of solar glass without duties for 2 to 3 years until local production picks up pace. “We have taken the first step for domestic production and will collaborate with international companies for technology transfer,” said the director of Netline, the company that has been offering renewable energy solutions across Pakistan since 2002.

Other solar energy businesses have echoed similar concerns, saying that the local solar industry cannot grow without allied industries. “Several industries need to be set up locally to meet the demand for aluminum, copper, glass, silicon and other materials” to set up the solar manufacturing chain in the country and achieve self-reliance,” Asmat Khan, director of Karachi-based Paksolar Renewable Energy company told Gulf News.

In late 2022, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved a 10,000MW National Solar Energy Initiative to overcome the energy crisis and cut the country’s huge import bill which reached $23.3 billion during the last fiscal year. Pakistan is one of the countries that are highly dependent on energy imports and have low foreign exchange reserves, leading to a mix of energy and economic crisis.

In response, entrepreneurs and industrialists have demanded the government “to promote and incentivise local manufacturing of solar panels and allied equipment” by offering tax reductions and subsidies to pave the way for a renewable energy future.

In 2016, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced a 6 per cent interest rate financing scheme for renewable energy. However, businesses complained that they cannot cater to the high demand for clean energy installation as “not a single letter of credit (LC) has been opened” since the extension of the scheme for another two years in June 2022. However, this issue is not specific to the solar industry. Pakistan’s deepening economic crisis and depleting foreign exchange reserves have forced the state and commercial banks to restrict issuing the LC - a financial contract between a bank, a bank’s customer, and a beneficiary.

Iqbal Zavary, the CEO and founder of Netline, has spent 40 years of his life in the energy industry and was the first to install an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) device in Pakistan in 1984. That company that Zavary started with the aim to build a team of energy specialists and experts is now Pakistan’s leading turnkey, one-stop energy solution provider.

Netline witnessed the highest growth in 2021 and 2022 with high hopes for the future provided there are supportive government policies.

“The demand is ever-increasing as local and international investors are seeing a lot of potential in this industry. Pakistani solar companies just need to be able to crack that code to benefit their company and local industry” said Umair Zavary.

Solar and wind are among the fastest-growing sources of electricity and generated more than 10 per cent of electricity globally for the first time in 2021, according to Global Electricity Review 2022. At least 50 countries, including China, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Argentina have now crossed the 10 per cent wind and solar landmark. Solar PV manufacturing is currently heavily concentrated in China due to favourable policy and legislation.

Energy experts have urged the Pakistan government to introduce policies and incentive schemes to boost domestic manufacturing which will improve energy access, create jobs, and contribute to economic development. As global demand increases, Pakistani solar companies also have the chance to seize the billion-dollar solar opportunity and unlock the renewable energy potential.