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Hydro, wind, solar energy power generation units to be set up soon

ISLAMABAD: In its efforts to harness power from renewable resources, the government in collaboration with private sector will set up electricity generation units of up to 50-megawatt capacity utilizing hydro, wind and solar energy resources.

These power generation units will be set up in remote areas of the four provinces, Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir, official sources in the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) said on Wednesday.

A policy for the development of renewable energy for power generation has been announced setting out policies and strategies to exploit such resources and attract investments in these projects.

Under the policy, the AEDB has been designated as a “one-window” facility for processing renewable energy power generation projects.

According to a brief summary of the available renewable energy potential in the country, total hydroelectric potential has not been fully investigated, but is conservatively estimated to be 45,000 megawatts.

The country has installed hydroelectric capacity of 5,928 of large, 137MW of medium and 253MW of small to micro plants, mostly in the northern parts of the country.

This amounts to 6,608MW of total capacity or less than 15 percent of the identified potential.

As far as wind is concerned, commercially exploitable wind resources exist in many parts, especially in southern Sindh and coastal Balochistan.

But no commercial wind farms are in operation. However, some micro-wind turbines pilot has been tested for community use.

Much of the country, especially Balochistan, Sindh and southern Punjab, receives over 3,000 hours of sunshine a year.

The large agricultural and livestock sector produces copious amounts of biomass in the form of corp residues and animal waste, such as bagasse, rice husk and dung much of which is currently collected and used outside the commercial economy as unprocessed fuel for cooking and household heating. app

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