KARACHI: Rooftop panels for every household can easily energize whole Pakistan along with drastic cut in import of fossil fuels saving trillions for the national exchequer, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here.

He said the central government of India in their interim budget has announced giving 300 units free electricity every month to one Crore household through their solar panel program. He said that the Indian government believes that its rooftop solar program will enable one crore houses to get 300 units of free electricity every month. Huge savings of 18,000 crore rupees are expected for households annually through this free energy and selling their excess generation to the grid.

Altaf Shakoor asked why schemes of this type can’t be introduced in our country. We spend billions of rupees to private IPPs every year for capacity payments which is nothing but a civilized form of extortion public money, he said, adding if these funds are used to give free of cost, or subsidized solar panels to our low income families, we can reduce poverty on one hand and cut oil imports on the other.

He suggested that the government can distribute solar panels to the poor villagers, free of cost, through Benazir Bhutto Income Support Program.

He said energizing our households would take load off the main grid, reduce the energy import bill, create technology awareness in rural populace and the money spent would be paid back in terms of oil import savings.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024