The 300MW imported coal power plant at Gwadar will be abandoned, and its replacement with a solar project has been decided upon by the Power Division.
Although the project was designed for the CPEC and given approval in 2016, formal construction had not yet begun. After deciding not to build any new power plants dependent on imported fuel in the future, the government now wants China to build a solar power plant of the same capacity.
Pakistan to abandon 300-megawatt coal power plant
The government made the decision to forbid the construction of new power plants using imported fuel in favor of expanding the capacity of existing facilities using domestic fuels like Thar coal, wind, solar, and hydel. But he continued, “The administration will keep up its policy of building new nuclear power facilities.
More significantly, according to the minister, the government has also chosen to switch the 3,960MW of existing imported coal power plant, including the 1,320MW-capable Port Qasim, Sahiwal, and China Hub plants, to local coal. In the first 11 months of the previous fiscal 2021–22, the cost of importing petroleum had consumed about $20 billion.
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According to the “Renewable Energy Jobs and Sector Skills Mapping for Pakistan” study made available to Dawn, the renewable energy sector generated about 14,000 direct jobs and over 11,000 indirect jobs in 2020, with an installed base of 1,995MW of grid-connected wind and solar projects and an estimated 2,600MW of off-grid solar photovoltaic installations.
The need for renewable energy professionals at all skill levels is anticipated to expand sharply in the years leading up to 2030 as a result of new investments in wind and solar. By 2030, additional investments in grid-scale wind projects totaling roughly 3722 MW and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects totaling 7533 MW could generate about 105,000 direct jobs, according to the Integrated Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) route.
According to the Renewable Energy Policy 2019, which outlines a growth trajectory for grid-connected, non-hydro renewables and mandates at least 20% renewable energy in the nation’s installed power generation capacity by 2025 and 30% by 2030, the government has adopted ambitious national renewable energy targets.
Read about: Pakistan targets 60% renewable energy by 2030
The Integrated Generation Capacity Expansion Strategy 2021–2030 was simultaneously approved by the government as a comprehensive plan to increase electricity generation capacity. Large hydropower accounts for the majority of the capacity additions in the IGCEP, therefore the 16,300MW of non-hydro renewable energy required to satisfy the national renewable energy targets is less than 11,700MW of new wind, solar, and bagasse projects included in the IGCEP.