Pakistan

By this time next year we may be able to wave goodbye to that old chestnut about renewables endangering security of supply. Elsewhere, the price of lithium – and the products it goes into – could go either way after tanking this year.

Italian oil and gas company Eni has completed a solar park at its Bhit Gas Field. The plant, which took six months to build, is integrated into the field’s generation system.

The country is steadily expanding solar generation capacity as it aims for 5 GW by 2022, helped by an influx of foreign investment from China’s Belt & Road infrastructure program and World Bank capital.

The solar home system company, which enables customers to pay their solar electricity bill through an app on their mobile on a PAYG basis, has conducted a monumental funding round as it eyes expansion to become a fully-fledged pay-as-you-go utility.

A report by Greenpeace has found in the five years since China announced the continent spanning ‘One Belt, One Road’ infrastructure plan, investment in Belt & Road countries has supported 12.6 GW of wind and solar power generation capacity. That compares with just 450 MW which came online in the territories before 2014. The initiative has also supported 68 GW of new coal capacity.

One 15 MW project will see the installation of high power mono bifacial modules – no small feat for any market. Other projects will be collocated with the country’s industry to improve security of supply, as load shedding occurs for several hours each day.

The Italian energy company has started construction of a 10 MW solar plant at its Bhit gas field in Pakistan and a 5 MW facility at the ADAM oil concession in Tunisia. It has also begun work on a 30 MW solar plant at its industrial site in Sassari, Italy.

Two Emirati developers are celebrating landmark deals with a commercial and industrial focus as Yellow Door Energy secures $65 million to expand operations into new markets and Adenium – one of Yellow Door’s backers – prepares to operate the region’s first industrial self-consumption and net metering project.

Pakistani regulator NEPRA is considering a tariff for a 49.5 MW site in the Khyber district. At the same time, the country’s armed forces are eyeing PV deployment for their operations.

The funds will be used to implement the Sindh Solar Energy Project, a scheme aimed at increasing solar power generation and access to electricity in Sindh province.