120 mosques and schools in Pakistan to run on solar power
Dec 29, 2006,
Source ::: Agencies
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Pakistan+%26+Sub-Continent&month=December2006&file=World_News200612294517.xml
ISLAMABAD • The Pakistan government is implementing a project to provide electricity to mosques and schools in remote rural areas using solar energy. The Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET) is executing this Rs28.58m project, expected to be complete by July 2007.
The project proposes a 200 watt PV system for each mosque to power four lights (20W), an amplifier, and two fans (80W), while the PV system will be of 400 Watts to power one light, one computer, and two fans for schools. This project will provide solar electricity to 120 mosques and schools across the four provinces, said a PCRET official here yesterday.
He said those villages would be selected which had no electricity and were not included in the government’s priority list for rural electrification within the next 20 years. He said many people living in Pakistan’s rural areas had no access to electricity and added that the provision of electric utilities to remote rural areas was a social service that the government would provide in order to increase their standard of living, health, and education. He further said that Pakistan was already investing much of its foreign exchange on oil imports for electricity generation.