(MENAFN- Wadsam) Afghanistan's renewable energy resource potential is
estimated at over 300,000 megawatts, with hydropower currently being the main
source of renewable energy.
Naghlu Hydropower is the country's largest hydropower plant.
The rehabilitation of one of its four turbines was carried out under the Naghlu
Hydropower Rehabilitation Project in May 2018.
Afghanistan has ample hydropower resources. In recent years,
the Afghan government has focused on mobilizing power from those hydropower
plants that were under construction or in need of rehabilitation, such as the
NHPP, as this is the quickest and most cost-effective way of providing power from
this environmentally friendly source. Other hydropower projects include the
Salma dam and the first phase of the Kajaki plant, which were completed in the
last two years. In the next phase, the government will try to leverage private
sector financing for additional hydropower plants, starting with the expansion
of the Kajaki hydropower plant.
The use of solar energy is also rapidly increasing
throughout the country. The Afghan government recently issued a request for
prequalification document for a 40MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project located in
western Herat province. World Bank Group's 'Scaling Solar' initiative will be
acting as lead advisor for this project.
A meeting for interested companies and consortia will be
organized on 5 November and prequalification applications must be submitted by
30 November 2019.
In May 2019, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) issued a $4
million to build and operate a 15.1-megawatt (MW) solar power plant. The aim of
the project is to reach a goal set by the government to generate 40%
share/5,000MW of the country's total energy capacity from solar by 2032.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
provided $10 million fund to support a 10-MW solar power plant in Kandahar in
2017. Kandahar Solar became the first privately built and operated power plant
of this capacity in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's national utility company Da Afghanistan
Breshna Sherkat (DABS) announced on Tuesday that soon a wind power project will
be launched in Herat province.
Costing $43 million, the project will produce 25 megawatts
of electricity within three years.
The project is jointly funded by the USAID and a Turkish
company, according to DABS officials.
'Eight turbines will be connected in the project, and with
these eight turbines we can generate 30 megawatts of DC electricity, and when
converted to AC we can generate about twenty-five megawatts of electricity, and
this power will be distributed to Herat city and to Herat's industrial park and
to business centers in Herat province,' Tolo News quotes DABS spokesman
Wahidullah Tawhidi.
According to statistics from the Afghan Ministry of Energy
and Water, Afghanistan is capable of generating 68,000 megawatts of wind power,
but currently only 0.3 megawatts of wind power is produced in Herat.
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