Pakistan inaugurates World’s Largest Solar Panel Plant in Bahawalpur

Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif along with the Zonergy team participated in the inauguration of Quaid e Azam solar park on this Independence Day. The federal government confirms that Pakistan has been awarded with $1.5billion contract for building world’s largest solar panel plant of nine hundred megawatt (900MW) in Baluchistan desert. The project is in collaboration with a Chinese company that for now has their biggest solar plant of 170MW only. This could be a fundamental move from the government to ensure country’s power cutbacks and shortfall in industry due to lack of power supply.

The president of the Zonergy Company Mr. Yu Yong held several meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Minister of Power and Water Mr. Khwaja Mohammad Asif. The company has a total past experience of 12000MW in China for installing solar plants in various residential and commercial areas. The largest plant by this company is in Xinjiang

This is not the first collaboration of this company with Pakistan, as they have been operational through a telecommunication company named ZTE since 1998. They clarified that they are not the complete owners of ZTE but the major shareholder in ZTE is also the major shareholder in Zonergy.

The company and Pakistan state government are proud to have this collaboration, as this would be world’s largest solar park named after the title of founder of the country in Bahawalpur. This plant would serve to address the energy crisis in Pakistan due to national grid’s conversion and accommodating fluctuating renewable energy resources.

A Pakistan based director in Zonergy Mr. Najeed Sadiq explained that the first unit will be of 50MW and they have launched it on the independence day of the country 14 August this year. The next unit of another 250MW will follow in a few more months and dated to launch on the birth anniversary of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. We expect to see the complete project before the end of the next year, adding 100MW each month after December.

The interviewer asked where the funds for these projects were coming from and the answer was the China Exim Bank and China Development Bank. The plant will generate almost 1.27 billion KWh of electricity through solar panels on an annual basis. This plant has the capacity to cover an area of 4500 acres and create at least 3300 new job opportunities for the locals. Mr. Yong also added that solar panels and solar power is the safest alternative to energy generation which is clean and affordable