Germany willing to help Pakistan with renewable energy

ISLAMABAD: Germany is willing to cooperate and assist Pakistan in tapping its 2.3 million megawatt renewable energy reserves. Berlin’s Ambassador to Islamabad, Michael Koch said Germany was ready to help Pakistan exploit its renewable energy on Thursday.

However, Germany has refused to help Pakistan with its electrical power crisis by not agreeing to share civil-nuclear technology.

“Germany is not the right country to ask for nuclear energy cooperation. On the whole there is a convention (in Germany) that nuclear power is problematic. There are issues of waste, safety and security,” said Berlin’s Ambassador to Islamabad, Micheal Koch, when asked about whether Germany would cooperate in helping Pakistan develop Nuclear power plants and civil-nuclear technology.

“Pakistan has huge potential for exploiting renewable energy resources. It has a hydropower potential of 41000MW, wind 346,000MW and whopping solar energy of 2.9 million MW,” said Koch. “All potential (for power generation) except for hydropower is being lost,” said Koch addressing a press conference, after visits to 14 delegates of nine German companies working in the renewable energy sector.

He emphasised that there was an urgency of closing gap between energy needs and energy supply and renewable energy was the best guarantee for sustainable development. Mr. Koch said that a number of concrete contracts would follow the visit. “If all goes according to plan, the first German project of 50MW in wind sector should commence from December 2010,” said the Chief Executive Officer of the Alternate Energy Development Board, M. Arif Alauddin.

He added that German solar companies could help reduce long term demand by introducing innovative technology. Three out of nine companies are ready to invest in Pakistan’s renewable energy sector according to Alauddin. According to him, the German delegation visit had been a successful one.

NEPRA is offering 17 percent return on investment and another one percent for those who in time commission project, said Alauddin. He admitted that during the last regime Letter of Intents were issued without resources being mapped. “This year we are only targeting 3 to 5 projects, if materialised it would add 200 MW power to the national grid next year”, he added.

Arif Alauddin said that the cheapest source of power generation is hydro which costs only 7 cents per kilowatt against winds generation cost of 12 cents and then solar 21 cents.

The German ambassador opposed the idea of using coal to generate electricity and wanted Pakistan to go for 21st century technology instead of trying to experiment with 18th century ones. He explained that Germany was changing over from traditional models of energy generation to innovative models and Pakistan should do the same.