Karachi: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah delivered the inaugural speech of Sindh Solar Energy Programme (SSEP) – deployment of Solar Home Systems (SHS) in the rural off grid areas of the province organized by Energy Department. He appreciated the fact that alternate energy sources serve dual purpose of mitigating energy crisis as well as protecting the environment.
Due to the shortfall of electricity many people are deprived of this basic need even in this modern era. Sindh has relatively low level of electrification, especially in remote areas. These localities will have electricity access by using solar PV under this programme. The solar Homes project will target not only the rural areas but also those areas where Electricity network is present but power outages extend up to 12 hours per day.This will also be an opportunity for the province to enhance economic development through the use of domestic renewable resources, and gain familiarity with solar technology and its operation.
Talking about wind energy, Shah said that with this abundant source, Sindh can play a leadership role in demonstrating conjunctive use of solar and wind power in a manner that optimizes the use of evacuation infrastructure.
Development of wind corridors at Jhimpir and Gharo are in full swing. Some 20 project are producing above 1GW electricity from wind and many more projects are at various development stages. The province has taken lead in establishing its own power transmission and dispatch company STDC which is successfully managing transmission line from Nooriabad to Karachi.
Provincial minister for Energy lmtiaz Shaikh said that the SSEP Programme was mainly focused on diverting the conventional methods of energy production to the state of the art new solar technologies to achieve the target of 100 percent electricity access to all.
