As the world grapples with global warming, developing countries like Pakistan face the gravest risk from the adverse impact of climate change. To get a leg up on the challenge, Sindh is preparing to do its part to reduce its environmental footprint.
According to a senior minister, the provincial government is looking to add another 2,485 megawatts of electricity to the national grid using nothing but wind. Some 24 wind-powered electricity plants are already contributing 1,235 megawatts to the national grid, Shaikh said. “These power plants were set up under the federal government’s Alternative Energy Development Board in Thatta district,” he pointed out.
“Some 12 companies have started the construction of new wind-powered electricity plants in the Thatta and Jamshoro districts,” said Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh. “Both districts form a wind corridor that we are working to tap into.”
Wind is not all the Sindh government is looking to tap into to both meet the province’s energy needs and mitigate the climate crisis. The world is doubling down on solar power. In 2017, global investments in solar power projects reached a record $160.8 billion, which was 18 per cent higher than 2016, as per data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Solar power currently plays a negligible role in Pakistan’s power generation mix. The country gets 64pc of its energy from thermal power projects which generate electricity by burning fuels — such as furnace oil — that are damaging for the environment.
According to the minister, the provincial government has issued letter of intents for setting up 25 solar power projects in the province.
Once completed, the solar power plants due to be constructed in Thatta, Jamshoro, Shaheed Benazirabad and Sukkur districts will generate as much as 1,550 megawatts, he said. “Four of them have already obtained tariff and are waiting for formal approval from the federal government,” he told The Express Tribune.
A push for cleaner renewable energy could have come in Sindh sooner, provincial officials said. They blamed administrative hurdles from the federal government for holding up progress on this front. “The Sindh energy department had finalised agreements from six wind powered electricity plants in 2015,” said one official. “But the federal government imposed a ban on wind and solar power projects through an executive order on April 20 that year.”
The ban was imposed under the recommendation of the Federal Cabinet Committee on Energy. Due to the unilateral action of the federal body, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) stopped the process of awarding tariff to companies who had finalised their agreements pertaining to wind and solar projects with the Sindh government.
The move prompted then chief minister of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah, to write a letter to then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Shah, in the letter, argued that the cabinet committee’s decision would hold up development in the province.
The share of solar power was so small in the previous fiscal year that it wasn’t highlighted in the Finance Ministry’s report. The Central Power Purchasing Agency’s annual report shows that solar power accounted for less than one per cent of Pakistan’s energy mix.
The rest of the world, on the other hand, has embraced solar power. Germany has invested $200bn in developing various clean energy sources in the past two decades and gets almost a third of its electricity from them.
Although there is no denying the fact that gas, furnace oil, and coal-fired plants are crucial for fulfilling Pakistan’s energy needs, the solar sector certainly deserves more attention.
For More:
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Alternative Energy
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