Pakistan goverment has banned solar projects in Pakistan. I guess only Sharif family members and its friends can setup Solar projects....
There may have been talks about doing so but I haven't read anything conclusive to state that any such ban took place.
I don't think anyone is going to stand in the way of a private enterprise or civilians from purchasing solar power or trying to setup small or large scale solar projects.
However, I object to the government investing in solar power generation or purchasing electricity from IPP's utilizing solar power if it isn't competitive with power generation rates from Thar lignite (i.e. 3.3 Rs/KWh) or production of electricity from domestic unconventional/conventional natural deposits.
Here is a figure of levelized costs of electricity produced from different sources of energy including Solar and Lignite in Germany:
Levelized costs take into consideration capital costs of the power plant, O&M costs, fuel costs, etc... and what the end rate needs to be in order to make the money back. Utility scale PV (Photovoltaic aka solar) is anywhere from double to almost triple the cost of producing electricity from lignite in Germany.
The "State of Industry Report" for 2014 released by NEPRA which stated
the Pakistani government offering a total levelized costs for wind energy of 16.3063 (South Region) to 17.006 (North Region) US cents/KWh. This is even more expensive than onshore wind projects in Germany.
NEPRA also published the tariffs for the
100 MW Quaid-e-Azam Solar power project back in 2014 citing that the levelized tariff for the project would be 14.1516 US cents/KWh. I've seen other posts which cited other proposed projects with levelized tarrifs just as bad.
http://www.nepra.org.pk/Tariff/IPPs/002 Solar IPPs/Quaid-e-Azam Solar/Decision of Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power (Private) Limited for Unconditional Acceptance of Upfront Tariff Solar.pdf
This is totally absurd and completely uneconomical in comparison to the tariff rates cited for hydro, lignite and natural gas generation particularly if we use domestic sources of fuel and develop these ourselves.
Now you can make the argument that we also need to look at other factors like energy and electricity elasticity in Pakistan and expected tax revenues projected from the production of said solar energy to see if it would be worthwhile regardless of the increased costs. However in light of current circumstances and the absence of necessary tax collection occurring I don't see this happening and all that's going to wind up happening is the government will increasingly lose whatever little revenue it collects the more of these projects go up which takes away from investment in other industries that could have instead produced increased revenues for the government.
Regardless, what I'm trying to highlight is the fact that it's clear renewable aren't the answer for Pakistan right now.
Pakistan should forget about solar power. Solar power for homes is good but Pakistan should invest in hydro, thar coal, nuke etc power plants.
I completely agree but my main focus would be on Thar's lignite and our conventional/unconventional natural gas deposits.
To demonstrate the economic viability of the Thar lignite project Pakistan had RWE AG (Germany's largest lignite mining and lignite energy producer who are also the same guys that designed and built those massive bucket wheel excavators like Bagger 293) actually come to Pakistan and do a bankable feasibility assessment for a small part of block I who confirmed through their own drilling that the small area they covered had about 400 million tons of lignite in place, that a 1000MW thermal power plant lasting about 30 years would need 180 million tons of lignite during its lifetime and based on the 8:1 stripping ratio
Pakistan could produce electricity from that lignite at a cost of about 3,300 Rs/MWh (or 3.3 Rs/KWh).
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/...Events/Mineral-Sector/BankableFeasibility.pdf
Everything states that solar and wind are completely uneconomical in Pakistan.
As for Hydro my view is that, as of right now, we should instead be concentrating on refilling depleted aquifers across Pakistan allowing not a drop of freshwater to discharge into the Arabian Sea which I believe will actually be a cheaper alternative to building dams and the money could go towards investment into electricity production from Thar lignite and natural gas (both unconventional and conventional sources). Hydro has a number of issues like capacity factor (about 50% last I checked based on US EIA figures citing Pakistan) because the bulk of the water that flows down the Indus and tributaries appears during the Monsoon season. Instead what I see is the need for consistent, cheap and dependable year round base load power generation which my view is only going to come from domestic Thar lignite and natural gas. Though this also depends on any future flooding we may expect like in 2010 during which a lot of the damage could have been avoided had it not been for the PPP, MQM, ANP, etc... continued opposition to Kalabagh Dam.
However, I'm not as averse to Hydro projects as I am to solar and wind.
I'm not in favor of Nuclear right now for a few reasons but primarily because these power plants can take years (5 to 7) to put up before they're operational and they have high upfront costs while the government doesn't appear to be willing to collect the necessary revenue to support building them. I definitely believe that we will need nuclear power in the future but I can't see it being feasible right now.
when their friends come up with a company coz lets face it reality is Nooni cant fix shit in power sector
He can fix the power crisis but the reality is that neither he, nor any of the political parties with the exception of the PTI, are going to resolve anything or willing to do what needs to be done. Instead they're too busy selling out the country and its interests to the US.
I've commented on this issue before that Musharraf, Zardari and now Nawaz operate on the same failed neo-liberal economic policy that has continually hampered growth Pakistan is capable of. Though obviously Musharraf was clearly far better at managing the economy, and the PPP under Zardari the absolute worst, his development model was flawed and unsustainable.
In fact NEPRA's own "State of the Industry Report" for 2014 which I linked to an above post outright confirms that the power crisis will get worse through 2016 and wasn't set to end until 2020 but that itself was based on the materialization of a host of projects including the Gaddani power project which was cancelled and small scale hydro projects in KP (which I have not heard anything which isn't surprising in light of news articles I've read citing that the government was withholding development funding or the province) that would have contributed to a bulk of the necessary installed capacity required to meet domestic needs.
Without someone raising the necessary tax revenue to get the funding needed to invest in power generation utilizing domestic lignite and both conventional/unconventional natural gas deposits the power crisis is there to stay. We're also going to need to raise import barriers which appear to have been taken down back in '99 and very likely cancel the FTA with China which has lead to a 50% increase in our trade deficit with China all all of which is killing domestic industry.
However, there are specific reasons why I don't see any of the political parties or even military rule doing this. Aside from the PTI I can't imagine a single party doing Pakistan any good.
