PM appreciates steps taken for promotion of renewable energy under new policy

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday appreciated the steps taken for promotion of renewable energy under the new policy and said the vital sector was ignored in the past resulting in escalation of energy costs and pollution.The prime minister stated this while chairing a high level meeting regarding the new policy being formulated on renewable energy.The meeting was attended by Minister of Economic Affairs Division Muhammad Hamad Azhar, Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan, Special Assistant to the PM on Energy Nadeem Babar, Special Assistant to the PM on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, SAPM, Shahzad Qasim, Secretary Power Division Irfan Ali and senior officials.PM’s Special Assistant on Energy Nadeem Babar presented the proposed draft of the new policy of renewable energy to the prime minister.He said the ratio of renewable energy in the energy mix was only six percent and the new policy was aimed to increase this ratio up to 20 percent by 2025. He said electricity generation from renewable energy was the main purpose under the new policy where provision of cheapest electricity to people could be made possible.Briefing the prime minister about main features of the new policy, Nadeem Babar said all hurdles in the way of promotion of renewable energy had been removed.He said under the new policy, giving protection to investors in energy sector, auction would be done on annual basis so that keeping in view the capacity and requirements the investors could participate in the auction process.He said it was also focus of the government that all machinery and its parts were manufactured locally.He added that all projects under the new policy would be installed through open auction with full transparency.The special assistant informed the meeting that efforts were being made to utilize solar, wind, municipal waste, hydrogen, biogas and waves of Ocean like renewable resources to produce energy, adding new methods would also be used for storage of this energy.Nadeem Babar said all relevant federal, and provincial departments, international departments, professional organizations, lawyers, bankers and all stakeholders related to energy sector had been consulted in formulation of the new policy.He said after approval of the prime minister, the proposed draft policy would be presented before Alternate Energy Development Board and after that it would be presented before the Cabinet and Council of Common Interest (CCI) for approval.The prime minister appreciated efforts of Nadeem Babar, Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan, Secretary Power and his team for formulating such a comprehensive policy.