President Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai held a meeting with the World Bank president on Friday and agreed to facilitate electricity trade between Central and South Asian regions.

The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources will place its 'Day Light Saving Time' to Cabinet Division on May 17 for getting final approval to advance each day by an hour from June 16, informed sources said.

Labour and employment, planning, industries, foreign affairs,

The Iran Aid Project, Asian Development Bank, International Co-operative agency and NORAD have granted loans for the provision of projects to provide electricity to the villages in the North and East under the concept of providing electricity to the villages islandwide, the Power and Energy Ministry said.

Managing Director Pepco Tahir Basharat Cheema said that 3,000 MW electricity will be added into the system by the December 2009, which includes IPPs and rental projects being processed by PPIB in the private sector as well as the projects in the public sector by Pepco.

With surging mercury to maximum 40 degree centigrade, Karachiites on Thursday suffered at least 12 hours of electricity loadshedding because Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) could only supply 1710-MW against the demand of 2350-MW, falling short of 640-MW.

Electricity requirements of the North-East will be met as soon as civil administration is restored, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) stated in a release.

A special discussion with regard to the Iranian Aid Program to implement rural electrification projects worth US$ 50 million was held in Colombo between Power and Energy Minister W.D.J. Seneviratne and representatives from Iran.

The government is likely to augment time by an hour either from June 16 or April 1 next year as a part of electricity saving measure.

Wave energy could catch up with commercially more advanced offshore wind power within five years, the head of pioneers Aquamarine Power Ltd told Reuters.

"What it took 25 years to do in the wind industry, we want to do in five years," Chief Executive Officer Martin McAdam said in an interview.

China is set to smash its target for a roll-out of solar power by 2020 more than fivefold and possibly even tenfold, a researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission, the economic planning ministry, said on Tuesday.

Under the NDRC's renewable energy plan set out in 2007, China would have 1,800 megawatts of installed solar capacity by 2020.