Here’s a very informative post from Bilal Zuberi (the full post is here).
I am attaching below an interesting article on Pakistan’s attempts to push for renewable energy. The article says all the right things about the potential of renewable energy, but I think it gives too much credit to the government on being fully alert to the energy crisis, and having a real plan to utilize renewable and distributed energy production as the way forward. Those criticizing renewable energy in the article only need to pull their head out of the sand and smell the air. They are, unfortunately, still living in the previous century.
This summer has brought terrible news regarding energy availability and access to ordinary Pakistanis. While most Pakistanis have been aware for a while that their country faces long term energy shortages, they had not expected the problem to be as acute and severe as it demonstrated itself to be this summer.
There is a severe energy shortage in Pakistan, esp in the urban areas, and most parts of the country are experiencing heavy load sheddings, i.e. periods with no electric power, designed to distribute load and conserve energy. Karachi, the major port city and industrial hub, is experiencing nearly 110 degree weather with 10-12 hours of load shedding a day in some parts. The situation has turned bleak, and even the more skeptical are re-assessing their opinion on renewable, distributed, and localized energy generation for Pakistan major population centers.
When it comes to Pakistan, an entire gambut of renewable energy sources can be considered plausible. Solar (PV and concentrator PV/thermal) and (onshore-off-shore) wind appear to make most sense, primarily given the geography and climatic conditions as well as the maturity of the technology worldwide, but biofuels, coal-to-gas and coal-to-liquid fuels, fischer-tropsch synthesis of fuels from converting biomass and biowaste to syn-gas, tidal power, small hydro, and thermoelectrics are all valid technologies to be researched and looked into. The biggest impediments, of course, remain rather similar to many other developing countries: lack of technological resources, lack of government incentives and support, mistrust of the financial sector for long term financing, inadequate infrastructure (grid quality, transportation, service & maintenance), and a centralized – somewhat corrupt – system of ownership of utilities. It is no wonder that even when utility industry was deregulated, the only thing the population learned about the process was how contracts were awarded to foreign firms without proper financial due diligence. Today, despite the utmost need for entrepreneurial activity in this critical sector for the country, people are scared to enter it fearing the corporate and political behemoths that roam the territories.
Read the rest of the post here.
