Pakistan on road to renewable energy technologies

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will have 100-wind power turbines installed in the remote coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan provinces during the next one year.

The country has already procured and installed 14 wind power turbines of 300 and 500-watt capacity, with the help of China, in coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan.

Dr Ishtiaq A. Qazi, Director General, Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET) said that most parts of these 100 wind power turbines would be produced indigenously, except the generators, which are to be imported from China.

The long coastal belt of Pakistan is a potential source for utilization of wind energy and PCRET is working for further promotion and transfer of technology with an ultimate objective to achieve complete indigenous manufacturing of wind turbines in the country, he added.

Dr Ishtiaq said, “a 300 watt turbine would barely be sufficient to run about two or three lines of black and white television and probably a radio, so this would be just for one household.”

He said that such projects are feasible only for the coastal belt. Recounting the achievements in microhydel energy projects, he informed that the council has installed around 250 microhydel power plants of 4 Mega Watt capacity in remote areas of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA), making the use of small streams and natural falls.

The electricity so generated is used for domestic lighting and running cottage level industrial units such as flour mills, saw machines, rice huskers, oil expellers, maize shellers and cotton ginners.

Under an agreement with Malakand Rural Development Authority (MRDA), PCRET has also initiated a programme, with the funding of Asian Development Bank (ADB), for installation of 100 microdydel power plants of 5 to 50 Kilo Watt in Malakand Agency, Dr Qazi said.

He said the council is putting in concerted efforts for the promotion of biogas technology in the country and has installed a number of biogas plants.

Dr Ishtiaq Qazi informed that under an ongoing project, the council aims to install 1200 biogas plants within a period a four years.

The completion of this project will produce 1.6 million cubic meter of gas per year for domestic use, he added.

With regard to photovoltaic and solar energy, he said, the council has developed the know-how and processing technologies in the field of solar cells, modules and systems.

The research laboratories at PCRET are equipped with facilities of growing silicon mono-crystalline ingots, slicing these ingots into wafers, fabrication of solar cells and devices, lamination of cells into PV modules.

As a result, a number of products are being fabricated, albeit on limited scale, in the council’s laboratories. These include silicon wafers, solar cells, PV modules, PV systems such as solar lantern, light home systems, garden and street lights etc.

He said, a number of systems have been designed and installed for applications of lighting, fencing, water pumping and telecommunications.

Dr Ishtiaq said, the activities in solar thermal include modelling, designing and fabrication of low cost efficient solar thermal appliances like solar cookers, solar water heaters, solar room heaters, solar stills, solar dryers etc.

Giving an example of solar water heaters, he informed that, solar water heaters of 20,000 liters capacity have been installed and are in use at the Attock Oil Refineries, Rawalpindi.

occur in a year due to environment pollution.

Renewable energy technologies can provide the solution to environment related problems of growing demand of energy with no impact on the environment. A number of such energy sources are becoming progressively compatible.

The volume of Renewable Sources is considerable; presently only 0.1percent of these are being used. One could say that there is no scarcity of energy in the world; there is in fact a need to shift to those systems that are clean, reliable and sustainable.

Worldwide efforts are being made to promote these energy technologies and various countries have taken many practical steps for their exploitation.

Pakistan, rich in renewable energy sources, can also exploit these resources to meet the growing energy demand particularly in the remote areas where energy is most needed. —APP

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