Renewable energy

Pakistan’s first commercial size biogas plant has inaugurated at the government-owned Bahadurnagar Farm in Okara. The plant will yield significant benefits including electricity generation for agriculture production, cooking-gas, and manure production. This is a great initiative towards sustainable energy growth and the utilisation of renewable resources, in the light of the energy crises and power shortages affecting the country. Although in Pakistan, renewable energy is a relatively underdeveloped sector, the Rural Support Programme Network is already running the Pakistan Domestic Biogas Programme which has installed 5,360 biogas plants and has trained in excess of 200 masons on the technology. The network aims to develop the biogas sector of the country.

This first commercial size biogas plant will serve as a model for investors and rural communities to replicate, and reduce on fire wood or dung cakes for cooking and heating. The energy crisis in country has adversely impacted the agriculture and industrial sectors. There is a dire need to explore the vast potential of biogas further to provide an alternative to people without a reliable source of energy.

Engr Mansoor Ahmed

Faisalabad