Chinese firm seeks licence to setup 900MW facility

KARACHI: Chinese Zonergy Company Limited, through its subsidiaries, is seeking for the government’s approval to set up 900 megawatts solar plants worth up to $1.438 billion in Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park, officials said on Tuesday.
Nine holdings of Zonergy Company — Crest Energy, Elbel Green Energy, Best Green Energy, Apollo Solar Development, Flare Solar Development, High Flying Solar Development, Kind Rider Solar Development, Golden Eye Solar Development and Indigo Solar Development — have approached the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) – sought generation licenses of 100 MW each, costing $159.82 million each.
Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park in Cholistan Desert of Bahawalpur, is planned to be a 1,000MW photovoltaic power station. The first 100MW by Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power Ltd, a public sector company, has already come online. It is the first ever utility scale solar power plant in the country.
In the year 2013, the provincial Punjab government dedicated 10,000 acres of land in Cholistan, near Bahawalpur and established a huge Solar Park. This has been dubbed as an initiative to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in generation of electricity and to overcome the ever widening gap between energy production and demand. Once completed, it will be Pakistan’s largest and one of the largest in the world.
According to details, Best Green Energy and Apollo Solar Development are expected to come online by December 2015; Crest Energy will come online in January 2016 while the tentative date of commissioning of Golden Eye Solar Development, Elbel Green Energy and Flare Solar Development is July 2016.
High Flying Solar Development is expected to come online by January 2017 and King Rider Solar Development in February 2017.
It may be mentioned here that NEPRA has already announced the upfront tariff for coal, wind, solar and baggase based power projects.
Entire Pakistan has a high potential for solar energy. The annual average horizontal solar irradiation per day in these areas is more than 5.48kWh/m2. For comparison, the highest solar irradiation measured in Japan is in Naha of Okinawa Prefecture, in which the annual average solar irradiation is around 4.5kWh/m2.
As Pakistan receives high solar irradiation in most parts of the country and has enough available space for installation of solar power generation system, therefore has high potential for solar power generation.
It may be noted that Pakistan is blessed with an abundance of solar energy and is one of the few regions having on the average 300 plus days per annum of sunshine and is considered best solar zone of the world.