Sindh govt, World Bank to invest $100m in renewables

Aim to generate around 300MW of electricity through various energy projects

KARACHI:

The Sindh government is collaborating with the World Bank to set up renewable energy projects in solar and wind equipment, aiming to protect the environment from greenhouse gases and Pakistan from recurrent natural disasters.

Speaking at a seminar titled ‘Significance of Renewable for Karachi & Export Industry: Cost of Inaction’, Director of Alternative Energy for the Sindh Government, Mehfooz Qazi, stated, “The Sindh government will invest $100 million in renewable energy projects in collaboration with the World Bank.”

Around 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity will be generated with World Bank funding, which will include wind and solar power, he said at the summit organised by Renewables First in collaboration with PRIDE (Policy Research Institute for Equitable Development) in Karachi on Thursday.

The government of Sindh is working to set up 500 MW solar power projects, 400 MW hydrogen power projects, and waste-to-energy projects, Qazi said.

These environmentally friendly power projects are the need of the time to save the country from natural disasters, he said, adding that they are also good sources of providing low-cost energy, which is another requirement of the time in Pakistan, which has been fighting against high inflation for the past couple of years.

Qazi said the Sindh government has developed a policy of providing affordable land for alternative energy projects. The provincial government is already acquiring a significant amount of energy from such renewable projects.

He also mentioned that the Sindh government and K-Electric are collaborating on several alternative energy projects. KE set up two projects of 25MW each in the Hub area three years ago. The Karachi-based private energy firm is harnessing wind energy from the wind corridor located in Gharo in the province.

Sharing findings of a study titled ‘Examining KE’s Cost of Inaction in Deploying Renewables’, Hammad Ali, an analyst at Renewables First specialising in the power market, said, “KE’s generation fleet is heavily dependent on thermal power generation. Timely decisions (on renewable energy projects) by KE can still save up to $4.51 billion in the next seven years.”

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He mentioned that previous decisions by the Karachi-based power utility company to procure thermal generation sources instead of cheaper renewable alternatives had resulted in losses of over $250 million in terms of the cost of missed opportunities.

Former NEPRA chairman, Tauseef Farooqi said that the latest license given to KE is non-exclusive, and any private entity can now enter the market in Karachi as a competitor.

He emphasised that KE should have been unbundled from the very first day because generation, transmission, and distribution are three very different departments that require separate attention.

He regretted that there was absolutely zero planning in Pakistan’s power sector before the introduction of Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan a few years ago.

Speaking of the potential of renewables in lowering costs for ordinary consumers and industrial users alike, he stressed that the country and utilities must now move towards a competitive, transparent, and open market mechanism as proposed under the Competitive Trading Bilateral Contracts Market

Programme Director of Net Zero Pakistan, Somanul Haq, said his organisation is a coalition of industries committed to net zero emissions by the end of 2050.

He further highlighted that the export industry in Pakistan is increasingly coming under pressure from global supply chains, and there is growing demand for Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) in the country, with 300GWh to be sold this year alone.

He said companies in Pakistan are shutting down every day due to more and more expensive fuels and unfavourable conditions.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2024
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