Country’s first and one of world’s largest: 550MW floating solar energy project launched

KARACHI: Pakistan’s first and one of the world’s largest 550MW floating solar energy project has been launched in Sindh.

Sindh Energy Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said this project will be an important milestone of affordable electricity as per the vision of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto.

Sindh Energy Minister Syed Nasir Shah on Thursday participated in the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding between the Department of Energy and Go Energy (Private) Limited for the 550MW floating solar energy project on Kinjhar Lake.

Pakistan’s first 500MW floating solar power plant to be installed at Keenjhar

Secretary Energy Musaddiq Ahmed Khan, CEO-STDC Salim Shaikh, CEO-Go Green Amar Ali Talat and Director K-Electric Haris Siddiqui were also present.

Syed Nasir Shah said on this occasion that Go Energy Private Limited is making this project with the cooperation of STDC, Sindh Energy Department and Sindh Irrigation Department. STDC Kinjhar Lake Power Project will lay a 220kv transmission line of about 60km to K-Electric grid station Dhabeji Karachi. He said that K-Electric is the off-taker of the 500MW floating power project for which K-Electric has provided Letter of Intent (LOI) and Energy Department has also provided a Letter of Intent (LOI).

He said this project is environmentally friendly as it will help prevent water evaporation and will be beneficial for aquatic life. The project will also benefit land conservation and this project is environment friendly which will promote green energy in Sindh and provide source of affordable electricity. He said this project will boost the economy of Sindh province by creating jobs.

Nasir Shah said the government of Sindh is determined and trying hard to utilize these renewable resources at a faster pace and our effort is to reduce the overall basket tariff of NEPRA and make it more affordable electricity for the common people of the country.

Apart from tariff reduction, renewable energy will also contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals to create a clean, reliable and sustainable environment and we hope to complete the project by the end of 2026.

Secretary Energy Musaddiq Ahmad Khan said that on the special directives of Minister Energy, work is underway on several projects to provide cheap and free electricity to the people. He said mini-grid stations will be set up at the district level to provide affordable and environment-friendly electricity to the remote areas of Sindh.

Secretary Energy said that the cost of electricity generated from this floating plant will be Rs.15 per unit which will be much low price than other power generation plants.

STDC CEO Salim Shaikh said compared to K-Electric, STDC’s line has never been tripped and while STDC’s line losses have never gone above 1.6 percent. NEPRA has allowed line losses up to 2 percent

Go Energy Chief Executive Officer Amar Ali Talat said it is a unique idea. He said Kinjhar is the world’s largest clean water lake where a floating project has been developed with the support of Energy Minister Syed Nasir Shah and K-electric and the MoU was signed. He thanked all the contributors.

He said experts from Singapore have studied this project. The project will prevent a quarter of the lake’s water from evaporating.

Earlier, STDC CEO Saleem Sheikh and Go Green Energy CEO Amar Ali Talat signed the MoU.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024