UAE firm seeks tariff for 21.5MW solar plant

KARACHI: A UAE-based tech firm TechAccess FZ has filed generation tariff application for its two solar power plants under development to generate 21.5 megawatts, it was learnt on Saturday.

TechAccess, through its two companies, sought tariff for the plants being setup in Jhelum. Access Electric is setting up a 10MW single axis tracking solar photovoltaic power project, which is located adjacent to a similar 11.5MW project being developed by an associated company Access Solar.

TechAccess is a leading value-added IT distributor, providing end-to-end business solutions to enterprise and mid-market sectors.

The government plans to increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix to 20 percent by 2025 and to 30 percent by 2030 from the current level of less than 5 percent. It also wants to shift 70 to 80 percent of electricity production to indigenous sources. Pakistan’s power sector embraces about $100 billion worth of investment opportunities and that includes $45 billion in generation, $20 billion in transmission and $15-20 billion in distribution, according to the energy ministry.

The latest solar power projects are being developed on a build, own and operate basis under the Renewable Energy Policy 2006. The projects will feed energy into the 11- kV grid of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company.

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority said the renewable energy is very attractive in terms of declining cost and will result in reduction of the overall energy cost for the system thus benefitting the end consumers of all kind.

Cost reductions, particularly for solar and wind power technologies, are set to continue into the next decade. Costs for renewable energy technologies decreased to a record low last year. The global weighted-average cost of electricity from concentrating solar power declined 26 percent, bioenergy 14 percent, solar photovoltaic and onshore wind 13 percent, hydropower 12 percent and geothermal and offshore wind 1 percent

At least 145 renewable energy projects, involving local and foreign investors, are under different stages of development under the Renewable Energy Policy 2006.