“Re development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technologies will have huge long-term benefits. It will increase countries’ energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly import-independent resource, enhance
sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating global warming, and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise.”
As the most abundant source of natural energy, solar provides vast opportunities for electrification and economic development without causing harm to the environment. Solar technology – from photovoltaics to molten salt power plants – is evolving at a rapid pace and solar is increasingly seen as a highly appealing source of power generation. In its 2000 World Energy Assessment, the United Nations Development Programme estimated that the annual potential of solar energy was 1,575–49,837 exajoules (EJ), an amount several times larger than total world energy consumption.
With an annual average of more than 300 sunny days, Afghanistan has the potential to produce in excess of 220,000 MW of electricity from solar-based sources. Moreover, passive solar technologies can be employed for uses such as heating and cooling buildings, which is both extremely cost-effective and environmentally friendly.