ISLAMABAD: Local as well as foreign companies are keen to invest in domestic renewable alternative energy sector, which has a potential to generate around 143,000 megawatts of electricity, officials said on Sunday.
A senior official of the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) told Business Recorder on the sidelines of the second international exhibition and conference on Alternative Energy and Energy Efficiency arranged by Renewable and Alternative Energy Association of Pakistan (REAP).
He said that the country had vast solar and wind energy resources and the government had embarked upon a project to attract foreign investment to help bridge the demand-supply gap by exploiting alternative energy sources.
He further added that the government was expecting over $2.5 billion investment in the wind energy sector, besides wooing foreign investment in the solar energy sector.
Sources said, at present as many as 11 wind projects with a cumulative capacity of 556MW were in advanced stages of completion and some of these would start supplying electricity by December this year. Others, they said, would be functional by 2013.
An organiser of the exhibition said that last year, some 30 local companies participated in the exhibition, but this year, the number has increased to 85, of which 35 companies were foreign.
He said that Japanese, Chinese and Korean companies had set up their stalls in the exhibition.
Pakistan is currently developing wind power plants in Jhimpir, Gharo, Keti Bandar and Bin Qasim in Sindh.
The government believes this would not only help reduce electricity shortage, but would also help ease the burden of oil imports that cost over $14 billion annually.
The average wind speed in most parts of the world is between 6.2 and 6.9 meters per second (fair category). There are a few places that fall under ‘good’ category where the wind speed is between 7 and 7.3 m/s. However, the wind speed in the Sindh corridor was stronger than the above two categories as it stands in the ‘excellent’ category of 7.5 to 7.7 m/s.
The official said that AEDB had approved the first phase of the New Park Energy, a 400MW wind project, near Port Qasim. With the help of China’s Three Gorges Corporation, a 50MW wind energy plant would be installed at Jhimpir in Sindh by next year. A wind power pilot project has been made operational at Daman-i-Koh in Islamabad .
As per break up, 340,000MW could be generated from wind, 2,900,000MW from Solar, 50,000MW from Hydel (large), 3,100MW from Hydro (Small), 1,800 MW from Bagass cogeneration, 500MW from waste while 550MW could be generated from geothermal power sources. A number of countries have successfully developed renewable energy sources from wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, ocean tides and bio fuels to minimize dependence on fossil fuels.
According to a USAID report, Pakistan has a potential of producing 150,000MW of wind energy, of which only Sindh can produce 40,000MW.
Keeping in view this rich potential, the government planned to achieve electric power of up to 2,500MW by the end of 2015 from wind energy.
Former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani inaugurated the country’s first-ever wind energy scheme ‘Zorlu Energy Wind Power Project’ with a generation capacity of 50MW in Jhimpir on April 2009. The project is nearly 60 percent complete and will start its trial production this year.
