Rooftop panels for every household can easilyenergize whole Pakistan along with drastic cut in import of fossil fuelssaving trillions for the national exchequer, said Pasban DemocraticParty (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here.He said the central government of India in their interim budget hasannounced giving 300 units free electricity every month to one Crorehousehold through their solar panel program.He said that the Indian government believes that its rooftop solarprogram will enable one crore houses to get 300 units of freeelectricity every month.
Huge savings of 18,000 crore rupees areexpected for households annually through this free energy and sellingtheir excess generation to the grid.Altaf Shakoor asked why schemes of this type can’t be introduced in ourcountry. We spend billions of rupees to private IPPs every year forcapacity payments which is nothing but a civilized form of extortionpublic money, he said, adding if these funds are used to give free ofcost, or subsidized solar panels to our low income families, we canreduce poverty on one hand and cut oil imports on the other.
He suggested that the government can distribute solar panels to the poorvillagers, free of cost, through Benazir Bhutto Income Support Program.He said energizing our households would take load off the main grid,reduce the energy import bill, create technology awareness in ruralpopulace and the money spent would be paid back in terms of oil importsavings.
Altaf Shakoor said that the government needs to focus on job generatingactivities. He said if every low income household gets free solar panelsit could reduce their monthly energy expenses to a great extent.
Theycould use this money for buying food and educating their children.He said that introducing energy saving technologies in rural areas couldbring a big revolution in the agriculture sector and make Pakistan agrain basket of the region.
It would certainly reduce food inflation inour country which is highest in the region. Altaf Shakoor hoped that the comingelected government would begin a mega program to energize households inthe country through rooftop solar panels.
