You might have heard the name of Dr. Lubna, who offered to install solar panel manufacturing plants about two decades ago without earning a single penny. And guess what, we missed an opportunity! She is a Pakistani-born US scientist and owner of solar panels manufacturing plants in the US, Dr Lubna, who offered the government to set up solar panels manufacturing plants across Pakistan.
Dr Lubna (an old Ravian), holding many prestigious awards, including Einstein Award, wanted to serve her motherland without any financial gains in her mind as she was quite rich already, having a happy family living comfortably in the US.
Looking into the future, she made the offer for utilising the solar energy potential of the country in order to provide clean, reliable and affordable power to its citizens and for the national power grid.
However, the offer is no more exist!
But we are fortunate enough that there is some level of seriousness on the part of the government to encourage renewable energy in the country, and this is reflected in actions of the prime minister’s taskforce who is working to draft the renewable energy policy.
Despite a positive approach, significant snags have arisen that have slowed the process, and if they are not resolved efficiently, it might damage all the efforts that are being put in. One of the key challenges is to figure out how to deal with those renewable energy projects that had already been approved, especially by the provincial authorities, but under the old tariff system at a time when the government wants to move towards competitive tariffs.
It is an important aspect because the government and the investors have valid arguments, and the numbers of projects, 140 in total equalling a power-generation capacity of close to 8,000MW, are going to be impacted by the decision.
The investors are of the view that the competitive bidding for tariffs should apply to future projects, rather than those in the pipeline that have seen considerable time and resources spent on them to develop proposals in the Independent Power Policy mode, and that are at various stages of approval. Whereas, the government feels that the number of projects in the pipeline is so large that making an exception for them will push the beneficial impact of competitive bidding too far into the future.
Both considerations have merit. Investors want predictability on the policy horizon, while the government is right to point out the speed with which renewable energy prices are dropping and make an attempt to capture the benefits of this development for the larger public interest.
The following questions then arises:
· How do we resolve this issue?
· Whatever specific course of action should be taken, while ensuring the public interest, and above commercial interests?
The current taskforce can look to moment for guidance, when Nepra moved to reduce the upfront solar tariff a few years ago, but that did not do any major damage to investor interest in Pakistan’s market for renewable power.
Related articles:
Comments