President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) Mian Zahid Hussain has urged the government to take concrete steps to promote solar power and remove the bottlenecks by consultation Pakistan Solar Association, in this regard.
“Import of substandard panels under various schemes should be discouraged to save masses from disappointment,” he said, urging the government to take serious measures to harness the available renewable energy potential of the country to diversify its energy mix.
Mian Zahid stressed on the government to ensure energy security and sustainable development in the country for which proper renewable energy resource mapping activity covering the entire Pakistan is a must.
“Pakistan is one of the best countries to generate solar energy but it is not being utilized,” he said.
PBIF president said that the CPEC would not only ensure rapid development but also increase the demand for energy, therefore, all the resources to generate electricity including oil, gas, LNG, coal, wind and solar power should be utilized, properly.
He said that at present, the government is preferring electricity through coal to solar power and it is slowly developing the solar power sector while the private sector is suffering from lack of cooperation on the part of various departments, difficult rules and regulations. He said that even solar power’s cost turned higher due to many reasons and that is not only burdening consumers and discouraging investors but also pushing away big foreign companies.
