Always been an electricity consumer? See what it takes to be an electricity producer
For a country like Pakistan which has roughly 250 sunny days in a year, the solar power industry has a lot of potential and solar panels have the capacity of generating huge volumes of electricity.
Not only is the production of electricity through solar panels enough for consumption, it also sometimes exceeds the requirement. The excess electricity produced cannot just be disposed off! It must be stored in batteries. But there is a limit to how much can be stored in batteries. What to do then? Reduce the production of electricity through panels! This is the most common answer. But, in a country where there is a huge power shortage, why not use this excess electricity to solve this problem rather than curbing the production.
This is how the concept of net metering came into being. First originated in United States, net metering is the process of selling the excess energy you produce through your solar power panels back to the grid. So, the grid acts like a central power bank which buys energy from you and distributes the excess energy wherever there’s a power shortage. So, while you produce extra energy and facilitate the power shortages, you also earn money for the electricity you sold. Sounds like a plan!
This has begun in various areas of Pakistan and one of the earliest examples of this can be seen at the Unilever Solar Power Project in Lahore which is being developed on the net-metering model by Reon Energy. Net Metering is a very common phenomenon in United States and Germany. There are full-fledged towns and cities based on the concept of net metering in these countries. Thankfully, Pakistan is also moving towards adopting this trend, slowly yet definitely.