‘Pakistan among countries producing over 1,000MWs of clean energy’

Pakistan has become a member of the exclusive club of countries which are producing over 1,000 megawatts of electricity though renewable energy sources, Alternative Energy Development Board CEO Amjad Ali Awan said on Wednesday.

“Our country has been utilising its wind, power, and biogas resources for clean power,” he told reporters.

He said Pakistan had achieved 1,135 MWs of installed capacity of electricity on the basis of renewable sources of energy.

This capacity will be increased to 1,185 MWs by next month when the first project of renewable energy under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor using wind power will be installed in Gharo.

Of the 1,135 MWs the country has been producing through renewable sources, 590 MWs are wind power-based, 400 MWs solar energy-based, 145 MWs biogas-based available through sugar mills in northern Sindh and southern Punjab.

He said the AEDB was planning that the electricity produced through solar power would be increased to 1,756 MWs by the end of year 2018 while wind power projects in the country would be producing well over 1,000 MWs after two years.

He said the letters of interest had been issued to four more projects to increase biogas-based electricity to 375 MWs while by the year 2019, different sugar mills in the country would be contributing up to 500 MWs electricity to the national grid.

Awan hoped that by the beginning of the year 2019, the country would be producing 3,000 MWs electricity through renewable energy as its onward supply to the end consumers would be based on a subsidised tariff.

He said that up to 91 percent of the 1,135 MWs being produced had been achieved in 2013 while 57 percent of this installed capacity was secured just last year showing the sincerity of the present government to utilise the potential of the country to produce clean energy.

He said the Gharo-Jhimpir wind corridor in Sindh alone had the potential of generating 32,000 MWs to 35,000 MWs electricity.

He said that under its future strategy, the AEDB would encourage operators of wind power projects in Sindh to install at their site solar panels to generate additional megawatts of clean power on more stable and reliable pattern.

He said that AEDB had also been facilitating the process of arranging finances from international donor agencies for capacity building in national grid for evacuation and onward transmission till power distribution companies of the area, electricity produced through new projects of wind power.

Awan informed reporters that the AEDB for last around one and a half years had not been issuing LoIs for new wind power projects in Sindh as already a number of such projects using the renewable source of energy were in the pipeline.

He said the AEDB had also started doing mapping of renewable energy sources available in the country through assistance of World Bank.

For the purpose, 12 wind masts had already been installed for wind energy and 10 solar data stations had been established in different parts of the country to scientifically know about potential of the country to produce electricity on basis of these two main alternative sources of energy.