Agricultural development schemes will soon be making greater use of solar energy on farms and fields beginning next fiscal year. The initiative has been welcomed by many banks who pledge greater financial support for the initiative.
In this regard, the Sindh government is already engaged in talks with two international companies to research ideas on how to effectively utilise solar power. Moreover, the planning and development department is engaged in coming up with the possibility of initiating projects through public-private partnerships.Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to partially finance such projects but a the USAID signed an agreement whereby it granted $88m worth of funding in agreement with five Pakistani banks
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to partially finance such projects. Also recently, USAID signed an agreement whereby it granted $88m worth of funding in agreement with five Pakistani banks which included HBL, MCB Bank, Faysal Bank, Meezan and JS Bank to help fund small-scale clean energy projects.
A senior Sindh government official is reported to have said that a few of such projects will be unveiled during the next budget.
Moreover, the Punjab provincial government in collaboration with foreign fund providers will be relaunching a scheme whereby conventional tube wells will be converted to solar power. In addition, solar-powered tube wells will continue to be sold at subsidised rates.
Similarly, the KP government revealed that it is actively engaged in talks with the World Bank to acquire agricultural funds to replace the farmers’ electricity-operated tube wells with solar-powered tube wells.
Balochistan government is also reported to have been negotiating with Canada to set up 50 MW solar power plants in as many as 20 districts.
In Balochistan, irrigation-scale water wells are being run on solar power. And, solar water heaters and solar UPS and inverters are not so uncommon in KP and northern areas. But all this is has been mainly due to imports. Local manufacturing is yet to take off.
A USAID report prepared in 2016 stated that Pakistan’s alternative energy has sufficient potential provided that the initiative is supported by a right mix of effective policy measures and participation from foreign and local entrepreneurs.
