Harnessing renewable energy

Rapid growth in Pakistan’s economy has increased pressure on its energy resources. The ill-advised and short-term policies of the previous regime rarely addressed this issue. However, the present government’s policy is to concentrate on sectors that are drivers for economic growth, and energy is precisely one such field.

To fulfil the country’s growing energy needs, the government has undertaken a number of initiatives such as helping set up rental power plants and the Iran-Pakistan-India and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline projects. It is also time that Pakistan got serious about exploring its potential in renewable energy sources, since its benefits would not only include helping with the chronic power crisis but also reduce the level of air pollution in the country. This was also the message delivered to fellow world leaders by President Asif Ali Zardari at the World Future Energy Summit 2011 held recently in Abu Dhabi.

Developing countries like Pakistan are simultaneously experiencing a severe energy crunch as well as deteriorating environmental conditions, exacerbated by polluting human production processes. Moreover, experts are pointing out how deteriorating environmental conditions have begun to affect the capacity to utilise other conventional energy sources like hydropower. For example, global warming is feared to be melting the Himalayan glaciers, which will place increasing stress on water resources. This means that Pakistan’s chances to produce more hydropower may diminish significantly in the near future. The need for exploring alternative and renewable energy sources has, therefore, become vital for us.

These new technologies may require capital investment, but the price of action pales in comparison to the incalculable cost of inaction. Pakistan’s economy needs to grow at an annual rate of eight per cent in order to maintain the current standard of living. This also means that its current energy generating capacity of around 20,000 MW will have to double within a decade to keep pace with rising demand.

At the energy summit, the president said that if the resources used to fight wars were used in energy development, the earth’s environmental crisis would have been solved a long time ago. With higher prices and growing scarcity of fossil fuel, solar power is finally emerging as a viable and efficient source of energy.

The imperative of economic growth and development for developing economies like Pakistan lends further urgency to the need to find energy solutions that are feasible, sustainable and cost-effective. Pakistan has a huge reservoir of renewable sources of energy including biomass, wind energy, solar energy and ocean tidal power in the vast coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan. For windmills, potential areas are Karachi, Thatta Quetta, Jiwani, Hyderabad and other areas on the coastlines of Sindh and Balochistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st,  2011.