KARACHI:
Owing to the environmental degradation associated with the emission of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, continuous depletion of conventional resources of energy, and increased demand for energy (due to population growth and the consequent urbanisation and industrialisation), both developed and developing countries are desperately looking for the alternative energy source. Moreover, with an improved understanding of sustainable development and low-carbon technologies, the acceptance of the use of renewable energy resources is now more than ever.
Renewable energy systems rely on naturally available resources, persistently replenished through natural resources, such as wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal heat, and tidal movements. Renewable systems contributed more than 30% to electricity generation and 25% to global energy consumption in 2021, which indicates their high significance in worldwide energy utilisation.
A clean and relatively less intermittent option is to harness the heat generated and stored beneath the Earth crust that originates from the planet’s formation. Referred to as geothermal energy, it is the Earth’s heat that can be found from the shallow ground and employed for various industrial applications including, but not limited to, electricity generation, space heating/cooling, etc. Several techniques are used to harness the geothermal energy potential, all of which utilise the thermal energy stored within the Earth, essentially shallow and deep geophysical techniques.
Despite the high potential of renewable energy, Pakistan is lagging far behind many other countries in the region so far as effective utilisation of renewable energy resources in general and geothermal energy in particular.
To overcome the energy shortage in Pakistan to a substantial level, the option of harnessing geothermal energy is indeed viable. Several geothermal hot springs, reservoirs and mud volcanoes exist within Pakistan. Many research studies have been made in the past showing the high potential of geothermal energy for domestic and small industrial purposes. However, the lack of state policy in this concern has been disappointing. There is an urgent need to develop geothermal plants in the country, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where the prospects of hitching geothermal energy are quite high.
Dr Intikhab Ulfat
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2022.
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