The Afghan government has approved in principle the 30 megawatt solar power project plan for the southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan.
The Office of the President, ARG Palace, said the decision was taken during a meeting of the national economic council chaired by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.
The plan was approved after the Ministry of Energy and Water presented the plan before the meeting participants.
As per the Bill 31 of the Afghan Cabinet, the Afghan government had announced the plan for solar power to generate a total of 100 megawatt of electricity to be implemented in 20 provinces in 30 projects.
According to the Bill, a total of 65 megawatt of electricity is supposed to be generated via solar power, 14 megawatt from wind, 13.5 megawatt from urban wastes, and 7.5 megawatt from hydropower.
A total of seven companies have shown interest to invest in the project and among them two of the firms have been considered for their better financial proposals.
The Minister of Finance Eklil Hakimi emphasized on the importance of the solar power but proposed that the project should be further reviewed to confirm if 15 megawatt or 30 megawatt of electricity would be sufficient for Kandahar province.
The meeting concluded with the decision to approve the plan in principle but the contracts of the projects will be reviewed after every five years.
