Pak geothermal energy resources have potential to generate 100,000MW power: Research

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is found to have been blessed with the potential of huge geothermal energy recourses that could generate 100,000MW electricity at the cost of 5-10 cents per unit depending upon different locations of the power plants, reveals the research of Pakistani scientist Javed Ahmad that has been published in the US.

More importantly, the US have offered Pakistan $7-8 billion equipment for the exploitation of mammoth resources of geothermal energy resources. The said resources are abundantly found in all the four federating units of Pakistan.

Geothermal energy is the heat from the earth and a free renewable, clean and sustainable source which can meet the increasing energy needs of the world. Geothermal energy in the form of hot water, steam springs, geysers and underground hot aquifers are available in the world including Pakistan. Geothermal energy is used for electricity generation, space heating and cooling of buildings, supply of hot water, green houses, fish farming and setting up of small industries requiring heat.

The world’s geothermal energy resources are 80 times more than all the known oil reserves in the world. Based on the recent estimates, the total geothermal energy potential available in the world could exceed the present electricity generation and direct energy produced by all the resources. Geothermal energy resources have been identified in 90 countries of the world which are using these resources.

The research of Javed Ahmad was acknowledged by the US experts during the US-Pakistan clean energy business opportunities conference held on December 1-2, 2015 held in Washington DC. Now Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif has included the geothermal energy in the policy for development of renewable energy for power generation which is a milestone decision of the incumbent government. And the government decision to include geothermal in the renewable resources policy will unfold a series of opportunities for investors to exploit the potential of this resource in the country for electricity production.

Javed Ahmad told The News that he is working on the evaluation of clean geothermal energy resources of Pakistan for the last five years and presented his research in the international forum and due to his efforts geothermal energy for power generation has been recognised as clean renewable resource available in Pakistan.

“The US experts have acknowledged my research according to which the presence of hot water and steam, springs, famaroles and geysers have been identified in Northern Himalayas,” Javed said. The research has identified mud volcanoes, hot geothermal fluids in Balochistan province and dormant volcanoes, hot magmatic waters at 150 degrees centigrade in Chagai volcanic Arc in Balochistan province. The research has also pinpointed hydrocarbon basin related co-produced geothermal waters with temperature of 80-170 degrees centigrade in Sindh. In addition, there are 300 dry, depleted and abandoned oil and gas wells which can be used for geothermal energy development.

Javed also offered his services to immediately generate 5,000MW electricity and provide heating and cooling of the federal, provincial, defence and diplomatic buildings from geothermal energy available in Pakistan to reduce energy shortages and saving oil and gas resources to be used for other industries.