GIKI Student Abdullah Mehboob Wins First Position at National GreEnovate Renewable Energy Challenge 2026

October 2026 — Abdullah Mehboob, an undergraduate student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI), has secured first position at the national GreEnovate Renewable Energy Challenge 2026 for his project “Solnox,” a hybrid energy system combining daytime solar power generation with nighttime radiative cooling to enable continuous energy production.

Background

The GreEnovate Renewable Energy Challenge is a national competition aimed at encouraging young innovators across Pakistan to develop practical solutions addressing the country’s energy and climate challenges. As Pakistan continues to grapple with energy shortfalls and the need to diversify its power generation away from fossil fuels, competitions like GreEnovate offer a platform for university students to showcase renewable energy innovations with real-world application potential.

The Winning Project: Solnox

Mehboob’s winning project, Solnox, addresses one of the central limitations of conventional solar power: its dependence on daylight hours. By combining solar energy generation during the day with radiative cooling technology at night, the hybrid system is designed to enable continuous energy generation around the clock, rather than leaving a generation gap once the sun sets. Radiative cooling technology works by allowing surfaces to emit heat into the cold expanse of space, a passive cooling process that can be harnessed to generate usable energy even in darkness — making Solnox’s pairing of the two technologies a notable approach to extending renewable energy availability beyond daylight hours.

Award Ceremony

The award was presented by Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, alongside Vice Chancellor of UET Lahore, Prof. Dr. Shahid Munir (TI), recognizing Mehboob’s achievement at the national level.

Conclusion

Abdullah Mehboob’s first-place finish at the GreEnovate Renewable Energy Challenge 2026 highlights the growing contribution of Pakistani engineering students to the country’s renewable energy innovation landscape. With Solnox’s approach to round-the-clock clean energy generation, the project points to the kind of practical, locally developed solutions that could help address Pakistan’s ongoing energy challenges, while reflecting well on GIKI’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the mentorship that supported the project’s development.