A sunny future

There is no quick fix for prevailing energy crisis, but solar is a fix that is quicker than just about everything else

Considering that much of Pakistan is arid desert that receives uninterrupted sunshine from morning to night on a majority of days of the year, we have been remarkably backward when it comes to the development of solar energy. In part, this is because the investment in solar infrastructure is very expensive and the technology itself is constantly evolving that it makes almost any project over-priced and out of date almost before it is commissioned. Pakistan remains in the depths of a multi-faceted energy crisis, with energy shortfalls across the spectrum of power generation. Dams are silted up, diesel-powered generators are ruinously expensive to run on imported fuel and circular debt hobbles the entire sector. The largest solar power project in the country is shortly to come online — the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park in Bahawalpur — and now there is an announcement that more solar projects are in the pipeline.

A total of 46 sites have been selected in Punjab for the setting up of small solar projects of one to 50 megawatts. Other alternative energy sources are also being explored, according to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, and these include coal, biogas and biomass. However, with the unit costs of solar panels dropping substantially, it is the sun that may be the best solution in the short term. Solar parks are quicker to build than dams, are less socially and culturally disruptive in that they are constructed in thinly populated areas and cause minimal damage to the environment. They are relatively cheap to maintain once built, with unit replacement costs dropping over time. There is no argument to be had over water treaties and the geopolitical impact of small solar projects deep in our extensive deserts is close to zero. The everlasting energy crisis has done a lot to bring the country to its knees. The textile industry has been strangled, with the power-loom weavers having been driven abroad to do business. The daily lives of the entire population are negatively affected. There is no quick fix, but solar is a fix that is quicker than just about everything else.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2014.

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