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KABUL: President, Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday inaugurated the first ever solar electricity network the southern province of Kandahar.
The network was put in utilization in the Daman district and Ghani officially opened it during his visit to the province.
The solar system has two phases and produces only 15mw for now, while the second phase is still under construction which will be soon completed.
In 2018, the power department began construction work of the first phase.
The system doesn’t have the capacity of saving electricity during the day, thus the power should be spent at the time of producing.
The project was funded by government and a Turkish company.
The power department said the second phase of the network funded by Zolaristan, a private company and would soon be opened to lighten Kandahar city.
According to power department, the network cost 39 million dollars from which 14 million dollars were provided by the ministry of finance and the rest 25 million dollars were paid by private companies.
Afghanistan needs 2,000 megawatts of electricity annually to facilitate welfare for the residents and industries. The power department said that Afghanistan imports over 1,000 megawatts from Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan with a cost of 270 million to 320 million dollars, while, over 280 to 320 megawatts is produced at home.
Meanwhile, a solar power project that will produce 50 megawatts electricity is under work in the western Herat province.
This comes as the ministry of energy and water announced four years ago that it would provide enough amount of energy and would end a foreign dependence of electricity. Kandahar residents were provided with one-hour electricity per day in the past.
