The Afghan High Economic Council has approved four wind and solar power projects in Herat, Kabul and Balkh provinces.

Laima Khurram, director of public-private partnership policy at the Ministry of Finance, said the projects would cost an estimated $160 million.

One of the wind power projects is in Herat with a capacity of 25 megawatts, another 40-megawatt solar power project is in Mazar, another 25-megawatt solar power plant is in Herat, she said.

The projects are part of a public-private partnership between the government and the private sector.

This comes after last month’s agreement between the Afghan government and an Emirati company to generate 3,000 megawatts of solar power in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan currently needs 2,000 megawatts of electricity to light homes and power the economy. However, it relies heavily on imported power from neighboring countries.