KARACHI:  Sindh government, on the occasion of the UN-declared International Day of Clean Energy, has reaffirmed its utmost resolve to minimise the consumption of fossil fuels for electricity production by increasing reliance on renewable power sources abundantly available in the province.

In his message to mark the commemoration of the International Day of Clean Energy on Sunday, the Sindh Energy and Planning & Development Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said the provincial government had expeditiously rolled out several policy initiatives to maximise the exploitation of abundant wind and solar clean energy sources in the province.

He said the construction of utility-scale solar parks for urban centres having massive consumption of electricity and the provision of solar home systems for faraway off-grid rural areas with support from the World Bank were the two cornerstones of the Sindh government's policy aimed at increasing the consumption of clean electricity sources.

He emphasised that the Pakistan Peoples' Party Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, as per the PPP's manifesto, gave fullest backing and encouragement to increase reliance on clean energy sources to ensure interrupted electric supply to the households, commercial centres, and industries of the province with minimal cost.

He said the Sindh government, in its current budget, had allocated maximum funding to expedite clean energy projects in the province.

He said that setting up the Sindh Electric Power Regulatory Authority and provincial transmission and dispatch and grid companies were important milestones achieved so far by the provincial government to promote usage of electricity. Microgrids are also being established to energise rural areas through solar power plants, he added.

The Sindh Energy Energy Minister said the Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company would fully facilitate the quick transmission of clean electricity by the private sector to energise the industries near urban areas under the special B2B electric supply arrangements. Nasir Hussain Shah mentioned that solar power systems were being installed on the rooftops of 48 public sector buildings in the province with a total capacity to generate 30 MWs of clean energy.

in addition t this 310 new buildings are under solarisation. He said the plan to distribute 200,000 solar home systems to the off-grids under the World Bank-funded Sindh Solar Energy Project had already been initiated. He said that work had been in progress to switch 656 government-run schools and 211 rural health centres in Sindh to solar power during this financial year.

Solar systems with battery backup are also being installed at the public libraries at the district level for uninterrupted electric supply.

He said the Sindh government would provide another 500,000 solar home systems to electrify underprivileged rural households in the province. The Sindh Energy Minister said the provincial government had also fully encouraged the installation of grid-connected solar systems with a cumulative generation capacity of 250 MWs of clean energy in urban areas.

Nasir Hussain Shah disclosed that the Gharo-Jhimpir wind corridor in Sindh had already been producing around 2,000 MWs of clean electricity for the national grid. He said the Sindh government had fully backed the installation of new wind power plants in the Gharo-Jhimpir corridor.

He said the procurement of electric buses, biogas pants, waste-to-energy systems, installation of EV charging stations under public-private partnership mode, and supply of solar-powered cookers and geysers were other important initiatives of the Sindh government to promote renewable energy sources and lessen reliance on fossil fuel.

He called upon the federal government to fully back all the plans being implemented in Sindh to accelerate the exploitation of indigenous clean energy sources to safeguard the country against the worsening phenomenon of climate change.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 27 2025

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