THE claim by the Punjab government that its 100 MW Quaid-i-Azam solar power park, located in Bahawalpur, is helping generate more than 80 MW of power, at 80pc efficiency, is ambiguous and misleading.

Any engineer can calculate and prove this claim wrong.

The production capacity of a power plant is described in terms of actual production, that is actual power produced, divided by the total capacity of the power plant, during the same time or over one hour. It may also be called efficiency of the power plant and is then expressedin percentage.

According to the Punjab government`s claim, the solar park produces 80 MW from the 100 MW plant in one hour, claiming 80pc efficiency.

But in reality the power plant generates 80 MW in one-day operation, that is nine hours sunshine a day, for which the total capacity is 900 MW, and calculated efHciencyls 8.88pconly.Itshould also be highlighted that the world`s most efficient solar PV power plant efficiency is less than 19pc and our solar park cannot exceed that efficiency.

To clear the ambiguity and confusion, the Punjab government should request the PakistanEngineering Council(PEC)to analyse the project and calculate the actual efficiency.

The PEC has the technical knowledge and authority to calculate the efñciency on actual data within a few hours. In fact, any engineercan do thatifthe actualdata of production ofthe solarparkisuploaded on the website.

The second claim by the Punjab government on the same cost for the solar power plant and for the hydropower plant is also misleading as the hydropower plant has a long production life, 50 plus years, while Solar PV power plants have low production years,around15 to20 years,and they cannot be compared as the same.

E ngr Baseer Khan Peshawar