Afghanistan will build the largest solar power plant in the country
Afghanistan will build a 20-megawatt solar power plant to meet the growing demand for energy in the country. The project will be financed by the Asian Development Bank, which provides $45 million to build a station in the province of Kabul, Bloomberg reported. “Taking into consideration that there are 300 clear days a year with free solar radiation for the production of solar energy in Afghanistan, the country is very attractive for the implementation of such projects,” Finance Minister Eklil Hakimi said. The rapidly declining cost of equipment for solar generators has opened up new markets in developing countries for this technology. Until recently, this was considered an expensive way of generating electricity, but the prices for solar generators fell by 62 percent over the last five years (according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance). Currently, photovoltaic panels are used as an economically effective way of delivering electricity to areas with unstable networks or without access to energy, especially in developing countries such as Afghanistan, as well as in sub-Saharan Africa. “The new project is the largest of its kind in Afghanistan; it will demonstrate the viability of future investments in renewable energy through public-private partnerships,” Samuel Tumiva, ADB Country Director for Afghanistan, said. The total demand of the country is about 3 gigawatts, and the domestic generation is 300 megawatts, according to the National electricity service department “Breshna”. Although the international community has invested billions of dollars in the country's energy sector, the country still faces significant energy shortages. Only 32% of the more than 30 million people in Afghanistan have access to power networks. Turkmenistan supplies electricity at preferential prices to the northern provinces of the neighboring country, but other areas still have difficulties with energy supply. The new solar power plant should be built in 18 months and will become the largest in the country. It will generate at least 43,000 megawatt hours of electricity, thereby helping to avoid emissions of 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide in the first year of operation. In September, a solar-wind power plant was built in Herat with the financial support of Japan. At the same time, the construction of a 10-megawatt solar power station in the southern region of Kandahar was started. The construction of two large hydroelectric power stations starts here soon.
