In the grip of an extreme weather recently, parts of southwest Pakistan are pummeling by heatwave that reach 50 degree Celsius on June 16. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has warned that it is consistent with climate change.
“It’s like fire burning all around,” said Shafi Mohammad, a laborer. Pakistan has endured heightened heatwaves since 2015, he said, especially in upper Sindh and southern Punjab. Even worse, the country has also faced severe power outages, with some rural areas getting as few as six hours of electricity a day. Home to 220 million, Pakistan says it is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but among the ten countries that most affected by extreme weather events.
To solve the power crisis that has seriously affected industrial production and residents’ lives and optimize the country’s power supply system that heavily relies on fossil fuels, Pakistan is cooperating with Chinese industry leaders under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to seek solutions.
“Huawei takes advantage of digital technology to integrate existing digital technology with photovoltaic, energy storage, cloud and AI technologies, providing FusionSolar smart storage solutions, which are applicable to five major scenarios: smart solar storage generators, string energy storage systems, industrial and commercial PV solutions, residential PV solutions and micro-grid solutions, all of which can effectively reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of PV plants throughout the life cycle and make green power more accessible,” a staff of smart PV department, Huawei, told the reporter of Gwadar Pro.
Huawei’s smart PV business has entered the Pakistani market for nearly 10 years. From 2013, more than hundreds of megawatts of PV systems have been delivered in Pakistan, covering shopping malls, hospitals, cement factories, textile factories and other industrial, commercial and household scenarios, among which the largest single project is the Scatec & Nizam Sukkur 150MW project that currently being delivered and expected to be connected to the grid in Q3.
At present, one-third of Pakistan’s electricity comes from imported gas-fired power generation. Worse still, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict led to a sharp increase in natural gas prices, hence Pakistan’s energy problems have become more serious. The heat wave in the past two years has further brought about a surge in electricity consumption for air-conditioning, thus a huge power crisis is imminent. In many areas, water shortages have also been caused because electricity-driven water pumps are not working. The development of PVs, especially the development of smart PVs, will bring about an epoch-making energy revolution in Pakistan, which can increase the proportion of green energy in the energy structure to meet Pakistan’s current urgent needs.
