Pakistan yet to exploit alternative energy resources: The News

By Mansoor Ahmad
LAHORE: Despite an acute energy shortage and worsening environmental pollution, Pakistan has not exploited the vast potential of environment-friendly alternative energy resources which could add billions of dollars to the economy in the form of carbon credit.

Besides developed countries, many developing economies are adopting alternative methods to produce energy from sources other than fossil fuel. Pakistan, on the other hand, has almost doubled its fossil fuel consumption in order to generate electricity.

Pakistan having a breezy and long coastline has the potential to churn out over 50,000 megawatts of electricity from wind, but at present it hardly produces 100 megawatts.

India and China are among top 10 producers of wind energy. Total installed wind power capacity of China is 12,210MW, of which 6,300MW was added in 2008. In India, total installed wind energy capacity is 9,645MW, of which 1,800MW was added in 2008.

Pakistan’s solar energy potential is also unlimited but no credible progress has been made except for importing some solar-powered geysers from China, which enjoys 66 per cent of global solar water heating capacity. It is followed by Turkey with a 5.8 per cent share. India is also among top 10 countries in solar water heating system with a global share of 1.2 per cent. Pakistan’s share in this area is zero.

Ethanol production in the world increased by 34 per cent in 2008 to 67 billion litres, in which Brazil’s share was 27 billion litres, which make up more than 50 per cent of its non-diesel fuel consumption.

The US was the top ethanol producer with 34 billion litres. India has made it mandatory to add 20 per cent ethanol to motor gasoline. In Pakistan, the first petrol pump started selling ethanol-blended fuel in Islamabad five years ago. However, only a few fuel stations have been added during this period at an average of one outlet per year.

The World Bank’s solar home system projects in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka remained continued, with cumulative installations in 260,000 households by 2008 in Bangladesh and 125,000 households in Sri Lanka. There are not more than 500 residences in Pakistan which have this facility.

The world has made progress in generating energy from waste which Pakistan currently dumps in low-lying areas, polluting the environment. Electricity is being produced through biomass around the world. Though most sugar mills in Pakistan produce electricity from biomass, the government is reluctant to buy this cheap power. The Alternative Energy Development Board has so far signed agreements to buy this electricity with only two out of 73 sugar mills.

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Water comes to the rescue in northern Pakistan: The National

Tom Hussain, Foreign Correspondent

KARIMABAD, PAKISTAN // Residents of Pakistan’s northern valleys are harnessing the natural might of glacial melt to generate electricity in their remote communities, and local officials hope that further hydroelectric projects in the area will have the potential to alleviate the country’s growing energy crisis.

The five districts of the so-called Northern Areas, known historically as Gilgit-Baltistan, are isolated from the rest of Pakistan by the formidable natural buffer formed by the Himalaya, Karakorum and Hindu Kush mountain ranges.

The snow-capped region of Alpine valleys has been the source of romantic inspiration for writers for a century, even being touted as the home of the mythical Shangri la in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton.

However, development workers active in the area said such fairy tales mask the sad truth: until the completion of the Karakorum Highway (KKH), a narrow 1,300-km road between Islamabad and the Chinese border in 1978, its communities were undernourished because of the tremendous difficulties in channelling water for irrigation, and frequently fell victim to cholera because of contamination of the water they did obtain from glacial streams.

A poignant example is the hamlet of Murtazabad in the Hunza Valley, which for some 100 years was the setting for an epic struggle between the community and the sheer, unstable slopes down which cascaded the water they needed.

Veterans of the struggle to tame a 100-metre-long natural channel have passed down stories of how, time and again, the efforts of men working without the skills or tools of modern engineering were frustrated and killed by the temperamental terrain, said Naeem-ud-Din Dinal, a development consultant with the Karakorum Area Development Organisation, an NGO.

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AEDB facilitates geothermal tech in Pakistan: Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Offices of a private firm in Islamabad have become one the first place in the country to have been powered by geothermal energy. Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) facilitated Shan Geothermal in setting up of a pilot project of geothermal earth energy in line with the government’s policy of promoting the use of renewable energy in the country’s power generation mix.

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‘Drip irrigation, solar energy is future of Pakistan’: The News

By By Shahid Husain
Mithi, (Trarparkar): In village Wandhanjo Wandu, Nagarparkar, one is amazed to find that a local farmer Mohabat is cultivating his 6-acre land with solar energy and is earning Rs300 daily through the sale of vegetables alone.

“I had this piece of land since long but it was lying barren for non-availability of water,” he told The News. “I used to work as a hari (peasant) in Thatta district and was barely able to meet my ends meet. Now I am self-employed person and earn pretty well,” he said.

Mohabat has gown tomatoes, eggplants, onions, chillies and sunflower on his field. He fetched Rs20,000 from the sale of tomatoes alone this year and yield in sunflower was 40 maunds per acre that he sold for Rs1,800 per maund. Similarly, the yield in onion was 60 maund per acre. He fetched Rs250 for every maund of that commodity.

“I use drip irrigation to conserve water and am a happy man now,” he said with a smile.

Known as Lift Irrigation, the project on which Mohabat works was initiated by Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP) and is supported by Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund. The total cost of the project is Rs8,81,526 with a TRDP share of Rs1,78,926 and PPAF share of Rs7,02,600.

“Had I used a motor to lift water I would have needed at least 10 litres of diesel that would have been very expensive,” he said.

Similarly, in a village called Singharo, some 55km from district headquarter Mithi; poor villagers are fulfilling their requirements of drinking water through seven solar panels powering pumps that lift underground water. At least 60 houses of the small village of 2000 people are not only getting their thirst quenched courtesy to solar energy but are also making money through sale of tomato, brinjal, cumin and other vegetables.

Again the project has been a collaboration of TRDP and PPAF. The solar pumps work for 10 hours between 10am and 4pm every day and women are seen collecting water from the water tank.

The well is 170 feet deep. Previously village women would fetch water from the deep well through camels and donkeys and it was a tedious job. Now solar energy is being used to do the job.

Apparently, installing solar panels for the impoverished people of Tharparkar appears to be a costly affair but if one keeps in view that the great desert of Pakistan bordering the Great Indian Desert always has a blazing sun, one is bound to agree with enthusiasts relying on non-exhaustible sources of energy.

“Drip irrigation is the future of Pakistan. It means we have to learn water conservation and this can improve the lot of poor farmers,” said Dr. Sono Khangharani, Chief Executive Officer TRDP.

“In 90 per cent areas in Tharparkar we can avail solar energy and the later can play a vital role not only in provision of electricity, cultivation but can also help in job creation, poverty alleviation and in giving a boost to local economy,” said Dr. Khangharani.

“The use of solar energy in Tharparkar will also result in reverse migration,” he said.

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Germany keen to set up wind turbine industry: The News

ISLAMABAD: Germany has shown interest in joining hands with Pakistan in setting up wind turbine industries and negotiations are under way. Islamabad has also asked Berlin to invest in Pakistan’s fertiliser sector in order to meet the requirement of the commodity.Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo during a meeting with the members of a German trade delegation, headed by Dr Olaf Berlien, Chairman Thyssen Krupp Technology said here on Monday, “Developing wind turbine technology is the need of our farmers and our rural areas in which the German government was rich and showed interest.”

The government would encourage foreign and local investment in setting up fertiliser plants in the country besides other fields as there was immense potential available for investment due to the government’s policy, he said.Wattoo said agro-based industries were also very beneficial for investment. The government would encourage public-private partnership and joint ventures in setting up agro-based industries.

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Pakistan Considers A Solar Power Future: Energy Matters

Currently in the throes of an energy crisis due to a massive reduction in hydro-electric power generation, Pakistan is looking towards solar energy to make up the deficit.On Friday, China offered a partnership for generating and manufacturing solar power equipment in Pakistan to help meet its growing power shortages.

China says it is ready to send technicians to assist with the introduction and manufacturing of cost effective solar panels in the country as a means of not only addressing energy issues but also to create many new job opportunities in Pakistan.China's courting of Pakistan may upset the Australian coal industry's apple cart as the industry has already expressed interest in setting up two 1000 MW coal fired power plants in the country.

It could be seen as somewhat ironic that the environmental and energy issues facing Pakistan, which go hand in hand, are related to climate change; a phenomenon that's been attributed to greenhouse gas emissions such as those created by the burning of coal.

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AEDB to produce 5,000MW energy: Dawn

ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) has planned to produce 5,000MW energy within five to seven years utilising renewable energy resources available in the country.

This generation would certainly help meeting the current energy shortfall, Chief Executive Officer AEDB Arif Allaudin said talking to journalists here on Monday after conclusion of inaugural session of two-day stakeholders’ consultative workshop on ‘development of medium-term renewable energy policy for Pakistan’, jointly organised by AEDB and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The CEO said the board is planning to make medium-term and long-term policy in consultation with concerned stakeholders. He said the board has been assigned by the government with the target of producing 5 per cent energy from renewable resources out of total power generation capacity.

He said the country’s first 50MW wind power project is scheduled to be commissioned in next month. He added five turbines of 1.2MW capacity each would be installed in the first phase of the project.

He said tariff issue will be resolved in consultation with stakeholders and people will get cheaper electricity. He said in an effort to harness the renewable energy resources, AEDB is encouraging private sector to develop renewable energy power projects.Earlier addressing the participants of the workshop, CEO AEDB said that country is facing an energy crisis, adding the board would fully utilise the alternative energy resources available in the country.

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