On the occasion of the 38th Earth Day, Pakistan is witnessing a serious power crisis due to the depletion of conventional sources of energy. The need for exploring alternative, environmental-friendly, and renewable energy resources has therefore become more inevitable.
Experts believe that global warming and deteriorating environmental conditions are adversely affecting Pakistan抯 water resources. The rivers are dying out at a slow but steady pace and with them, Pakistan抯 chances of producing cheap hydropower are diminishing as well.
Although huge coal reserves that can be used for power generation and for resolving the prevalent power crisis have been discovered lately in Sindh, but mining these resources requires immense amounts of investment. Moreover, this is by no means an environment-friendly solution to the problem.
The most appropriate answer, according to some experts, is exploring renewable sources of energy such as wind, solar and even tidal energy. These not only have huge power-generation potential, but are also extremely environment-friendly and are successfully being used for electricity-generation in various countries of the world.
Unfortunately, not much research is being carried out in Pakistan for utilizing renewable sources of energy for power production. This is despite the fact that an Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) exists in the country. The purpose of this board is to raise awareness about renewable energy sources and to promote them in the country.
Azhar Ayub, an expert on renewable energy sources, is trying to introduce solar and wind power technologies in Pakistan. He believes that for the common citizen, the only solution to the electricity crisis in the country is 慸omestic power generation?through solar or wind-solar hybrid systems.
He lamented the fact that no research is currently underway in Pakistan, even by the AEDB, primarily because the authorities concerned, as well as the academia and the local industrialists, lack awareness about alternate energy sources.
揑n the name of research, our students prepare idiotic projects to get marks in exams. Or people write theses for acquiring PhD degrees at Universities. Research needs money, government patronage, facilities and resources. All of these are lacking in Pakistan,?Ayub said.
He criticizing AEDB officials, and accused them of 揹oing business?instead of promoting the alternate energy resources. He cited the examples of various countries, including India, where government institutions invent products and provide them to people on easy installments.
揝olar energy is an expensive technology but it is a one-time investment and is also very user- and environment-friendly. In India, government institutions provide such products on lease, so that people can afford them. In Pakistan, however, people are making money through them,?Ayub said.
According to some other experts, the total solar energy available to the earth is approximately 3,850 ZetaJoules (ZJ) per year while the worldwide energy consumption was 0.471 ZJ in 2004.
Another area with respect to renewable energy resources is the exploration of wind power ?that is, the conversion of wind energy into electricity, using wind turbines. By the end of 2007, the worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 94.1 GigaWatts (GW).
Currently, wind produces just over one percent of worldwide electricity use, and accounts for approximately 19 percent of electricity production in Denmark, nine percent in Spain and Portugal, and six percent in Germany and the Republic of Ireland. Pakistan however, lags behind in this area as well, despite the fact that in neighbouring countries, such as India and China, the potential of wind power is successfully being used for electricity generation, albeit at a small scale. More importantly, extensive research is being carried out in this area in these countries.
In Pakistan, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has successfully completed a project through which several areas have been identified in Sindh and Balochistan and even in the NWFP. These areas are such to have huge wind-power potential. Unfortunately, no headway has been so far in this regard since the area-identification project was completed.
Meanwhile, the good news is that Pakistan is going to host the 8th World Wind Energy Conference (from December 4 to December 6, 2008) in the port city of Karachi. This gives rise to hopes that authorities would soon pay attention towards exploring the existing wind power potential in Pakistan.
Another area which needs the immediate attention of local authorities concerned is tidal power, also known as tidal energy. This is a form of hydropower that exploits the movement of water caused by tidal currents or the rise and fall in sea levels due to the tides.
Tidal power is yet to be widely used anywhere in the world, but it also has the potential for future electricity generation. Experts even believe that it is more profitable than wind energy and solar power.
In Pakistan, which has been gifted with over 700 kilometers of coastline, tidal power can prove to be a solution to the perpetual power crisis. In order to do that, however, authorities concerned will have to change their mindset and attitude towards emerging as well as environmental-friendly technologies.
Interestingly, at a time when extensive research is being carried out around the globe for finding cheap sources of energy, many people in Pakistan have not even heard of unconventional technologies being used elsewhere in the world. These include geothermal power, which also has the potential to contribute towards eliminating the persisting power crisis in the country.
Geothermal power is energy generated by heat stored under the Earth抯 surface or the collection of absorbed heat in the atmosphere and oceans. In 2007 however, geothermal power supplied less than one percent of the world抯 energy.
Similarly, biofuels, biomass and wave power are some other potential energy sources which need to be explored by authorities concerned, researchers, and investors, in order to provide electricity to far-flung and remote areas of the country, as well as to meet the growing demand of electricity for industrialization and agriculture.
Most importantly, thousands of tonnes of domestic waste produced daily produced in the country is poorly managed and is dumped without keeping in view its effects on the local environment. This waste can also be used for electricity production by using waste heat electricity generation technology. Even though this method would not be as environment-friendly as renewable energy sources, but it can help diminish the gap in demand and supply of the electricity to Pakistan.
