Pakistan’s parliament, the Majlis-e-Shoora (pictured), has become the first to be run entirely on solar power.
The Parliament House in Islamabad generates 80MW of energy, 62MW of which it uses itself and 18MW it exports to the National Grid.
The solar project was launched last year by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Sharif is expected formally to "switch on" the parliament’s solar system later this month.
The project is expected to save around $1m a year in bills.
The government has been issued a "net-metering" license by The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, the organisation responsible for regulating electricity in Pakistan. This mechanism helps to deliver surplus production of energy to the National Grid.
Image: Pakistan’s Parliament House (Waqas Usman/Wikimedia Commons)
Story for GCR? Get in touch via email: [email protected]
Comments
Comments are closed.
This great news. It would be good to know the payback period?
Good news. This is the way forward to use solar power and reduce fossil fuel consumption.
Great news indeed! At last politicians who are now leading by example!!
Pakistan and other countries Governments short of power should now provide small size solar power installations where power can be provided for villages and individual homes which may be a more economical use of limited financial resources compared to hydro dams or nuclear power. Further it can be implemented in stages and/or simultaneously in many areas.
But then will the perceived ‘greed’ of political leaders and their financial creditors [who financed their elections] allow this which will benefit the millions of common citizens and not a few ‘greedy’ businesses and their ‘puppets’ with political power?