[🇵🇰] Solar Power News

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Nestle sets the way​

BR Research
December 28, 2023

Earlier this month, Nestlé Pakistan inaugurated a 2.5 MW solar power plant, which is under its Rs2 billion investment in the renewable energy, at its Kabirwala Factory with the objective to reduce cost of power production, lower import bill and slash carbon emissions. This is one of a few initiatives of the company to integrate its business strategies with the domestic economic realities where the survival is hinged upon enhanced localization.

As told by Jason Avanceña, Chief Executive Officer, Nestlé Pakistan, over 90 percent of the raw and packaging requirements of the company are met locally in Pakistan.

This is the way for MNCs to sustain in Pakistan, as the country’s economic vulnerabilities – especially on the external front, are not likely to end any time soon. There are issues of repatriation of profits, and some companies are reluctant to invest. The key is to have investment that is to reap fruit in terms of import substitution (by localization) and generating exports.

Pakistan is mainly an agrarian economy and increased efficiencies in this sector go a long way. The timings are important, as due to massive currency depreciation in the last couple of years, there are benefits to enhancing exports from non-traditional exporting sectors. There are learnings for other MNCs, as they should look outwards for developing markets and inwards for expanding the value chains.

In case of Nestle, their localization has also led them to source over 7,500 metric tons of wheat and rice, 420 million liters of milk and 50,000 tons of local fruit including mangoes (south Punjab and Sindh), apples (Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan), peaches (Swat), guavas, lime, oranges (Sargodha), and red grapes (Chakwal). There are gains both for businesses and the country in terms of producing value-added products like juice nectars, cream, and milk powder to name a few.

Meanwhile, the 2.5-megawatt solar power plant completed with an investment of Rs480 million at Kabirwala Factory is one of the company’s sustainability initiatives that will reduce 1,800 tCO2e of greenhouse gas emissions per year.

The project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions across company’s operations. The plan is to reduce emissions by 20% (versus a 2018 baseline) by 2025, halve them by 2030 and reach Net Zero by 2050 in line with UN SDGs 13 (Climate Action) and 15 (Conserving Life on Land).

The company is all set to generate foreign revenues for Pakistan by increasing its exports to $18 million in 20 countries. The company was already exporting nutritious products like juices, dairy cream, milk powders etc. to U.S., U.K, Central Asia, Middle East and others.

This year, they have explored and entered many new markets for exports including Maldives, Hong Kong, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey, and China. The company has a certain edge to cater to the South Asian diaspora where the palate is tuned to the products from our region.

Nestle sets the way

Earlier this month, Nestlé Pakistan inaugurated a 2.5 MW solar power plant, which is under its Rs2 billion...

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Pakistan's solar industry

Pakistan's solar industry is experiencing rapid growth, but it faces significant challenges as more distributed solar systems are integrated into the grid.

Speaking at a seminar on "Sustainable Energy Solutions – Achieving Net-Zero Targets," organised by Shenzhen Hopewind Electric, Engineer Syed Faizan Ali Shah, a member of the Prime Minister's Pakistan Solarisation Committee, highlighted key concerns for the sector.

Shah warned of increased exports from net-metered solar systems, particularly during shoulder months when demand is lower, leading to grid stress. He also pointed out that grids in certain areas are heavily concentrated, while others remain underutilised.

"The grid is seeing a decrease in its minimum operational load, which presents challenges in managing reverse power flow, over-voltages, harmonics, and low reactive power," he explained. Power quality issues, curtailments, rising peak demand, and increasing tariffs are additional concerns.

Shah attributed the solar sector's growth to rising electricity prices and falling costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules.

The favourable regulatory framework, with increasing buy-back rates and shorter payback periods, has also played a crucial role in promoting solar adoption.

On the industrial side, the absence of red tape, coupled with tax breaks and zero customs duties on solar imports, has fostered the sector's expansion.

"Pakistan's utility-scale solar generation stands at 780 MW, with distributed solar producing 2,700 MW, excluding K-Electric's 600 MW," Shah said.

He added that captive solar generation capacity ranges between 2,000 and 3,000 MW. This year, Pakistan imported 13 GW of solar inverters and panels, indicating robust growth in self-generation and grid exports.

 

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Pakistan PV storage market usher in a mushrooming​

China Economic Net
Jun 26, 2024

BEIJING, Jun. 26 (China Economic Net)– “After the installation of solar panels, our [electricity] cost has been reduced to 30 percent,” Imran Ali Gul, a hotel manager in Islamabad who has installed a 16kw system, told with satisfaction. “That’s why we preferred to get the solar system installed.”

A PV storage system in Pakistan [Photo provided to CEN]

Aamir Hussain, Chairman Pakistan Alternative Energy Association, indicated that Pakistan has purchased and installed solar panels of around 1800 megawatts last year, which was expected to jump to 3,000 megawatts this year due to the lower prices of the panels and increased customer demand. “Pakistan will be spending over 3.5 billion dollars this year on solar panels imports only as this doesn’t include import of batteries, inverters and other auxiliary items. Pakistan needs to follow consistent policies regarding renewable energy to meet its national and international obligations for the greenhouse gas emissions.”

According to the customs data, from January to April this year, China’s exports of photovoltaic modules, inverters and lithium batteries to Pakistan were worth 7.83 billion yuan, 779 million yuan and 330 million yuan, respectively, up 110%, 170% and 250% year-on-year, showing explosive growth, which is closely related to the fragile local electricity market.

Long-term power outages and large-scale blackouts, as well as relatively high electricity prices (about 17.5 cents/kWh), which exceeds India (10.3 cents), Bangladesh (8.6 cents) and Vietnam (7.2 cents), have forced Pakistani households and businesses to consider cheaper alternatives. As the cost of photovoltaic storage continues to decline, users could effectively reduce overall electricity costs by building their own PV storage. Therefore, installing a household storage system has become a “rigid demand” to ensure power supply as well as reduce costs, driving the mushrooming of Pakistan’s distributed storage market.

“Considering power outages in Pakistan, especially during the peak electricity consumption period in summer, we have great potential to develop household energy storage systems in the local area.

Our small energy storage systems have several different capacities, such as 5 kWh and 10 kWh, to prepare for emergencies. In fact, diesel engines are widely used in Pakistan for power generation, but its cost is much higher than photovoltaics, not to mention the pollution they generate is harmful to the green transformation. With the combination of distributed PVs + inverters + storage systems, many families could abandon diesel engines, which is undoubtedly a win-win situation for our market expansion and Pakistan’s low-carbon goals,"

 

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200,000 families to get solar home system with 80pc subsidy: Murad​

Energy Department signs three framework agreements; solar panel with battery, one DC fan and three LED bulbs to cost Rs55,000.

 

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Islamabad:— Solar panels adaptation in Pakistan during last 10 years:

2014:— 300K houses
2024:— 10 million houses

Note:— Pakistan becomes leading country in South Asia with fastest rate of solar panels becoming the primary source of energy for households.

 

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Pakistan Becomes Second-Largest Market for Chinese Solar Exports in 2024.