HUNZA: In a game-changing first, NPak Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of Industrial Promotion Services (IPS), has installed a 1-MW solar power plant in the Hunza district of Gilgit-Baltistan to offset the region’s acute energy deficit and ensure communities living in these remote valleys a clean, sustainable source of electricity.
This project sets a unique precedent as the region’s first public-private partnership to produce clean energy at comparable scale, while actively contributing to global climate change mitigation.
Sitting at 2,800 metres above sea level, the plant’s more than 2,300 photovoltaic panels will produce 1,600 MWh of electricity per year to power local households and businesses. What it generates in clean energy will also avoid over 1,100 metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually (i.e., what more than 240 gas-fueled cars would emit per year, based on figures from the US EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator).
“The Government of Gilgit-Baltistan highly encourages clean and green energy solutions,” said Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Honourable Haji Gulbar Khan, in his address to government officials, community leaders and representatives from NPak Energy management who attended the inauguration ceremony on 17 November.
“We congratulate the Aga Khan Development Network on commissioning the 1-MW solar power plant. We assure the communities that provincial government will focus on more renewable energy programmes to overcome the power shortages in Gilgit-Baltistan.”
NPak Energy has signed a 30-year Concession Agreement with the Government of Gilgit Baltistan. It aims to strengthen public service delivery by creating a sustainable, self-reliant utility operation that makes clean electricity reliable and affordable to every household in the Hunza district – and in turn catalyses economic opportunities and job creation.
“Having a strong track record in rural electrification through the Aga Khan Development Network’s renewable energy programmes in the region, we are proud to foster our work in Gilgit Baltistan within the partnership we have established with the Government, bringing sustainable energy to local communities,” said NPak Energy Ltd CEO Mr Mansoor Dhanani.“We look forward to NPak Energy’s continued growth and success in Hunza District.”
The Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) of the government, in partnership with solar firm Energy NPAK has installed a one-megawatt solar power plant in Hunza district of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The solar plant aims to meet the energy deficit in the region and ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity to the people living in these valleys. This public-private partnership project will play an active role in generating clean energy as well as mitigating global climate change.
More than 2,300 solar panels of the plant, located at an altitude of 2,800 meters above sea level, will generate 1,600MW of electricity per year for local households and industries. The project will generate clean energy that will avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1,100 metric tonnes of carbon annually. The local government will launch more renewable energy programs to overcome the power shortage in Gilgit-Baltistan In the second phase of the project, a 2MW solar plant will be commissioned in 2024.
