The Engineering Development Board (EDB) has finalized a policy document on solar panels and will present it to the government by the end of the month.
The board started working on the policy a few months ago based on consultation with all the stakeholders, as directed by the Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P) and its own management board. The stakeholders include local manufacturers of solar panels, provincial energy departments, research organizations, academia, users, and other concerned organizations and departments in the federal and provincial governments. A draft was presented by the board at the EDB’s 51st Board of Management meeting in June, and it was recommended that the EDB should hold a consultative workshop before submitting the policy document.
The new policy will fit in with the national solar energy policy that is being drafted by the Ministry of Power and the Regulatory Energy Task Force. Pakistan is currently facing a serious power crisis that has resulted in countrywide load shedding. The current demand is about 29,000 MW, with production hovering around 22,000 MW. The current government is keen on developing a solar energy policy to produce cheaper electricity locally to curb the problem of load shedding. The local industry has already started investing in building capacity for manufacturing solar panels and the required equipment to avail of the government’s upcoming solar energy policy. The local production of solar panels and the necessary equipment will reduce the import bill and will save valuable foreign exchange. Additionally, Pakistan’s imports will decline as it becomes more dependent on renewable sources of energy instead of imported fuel for production. The industry is currently using imported raw materials for the production of solar panels but it is planning to use local raw minerals to bring the import bill down in the forthcoming years.
Source: This news is originally published by propakistani