Renewable
Energy/Clean Fuels
 Introduction
The depleting
world fossil fuel reserves, very high environmental pollution levels,
and high import bills for fossil fuels are factors compelling enough to
look for renewable energy resources utilization. SDPI's Renewable Energy/Clean
Fuels program seeks to provide constructive interventions in the framing
and implementation of policies for adoption of renewable and environmentally
clean energy resources, and hence to sustainable development. The program
advocates that energy policies in Pakistan be reformulated and aimed at
stretching the useful life of local resources through energy conservation
and improving energy sector performance, managing energy demand and switching
to cleaner and renewable alternatives. The program also places great stress
on demonstrating the effectiveness of renewable technologies.
Initiatives
In an effort
to establish renewable energy and sustainable energy initiatives as a
viable alternative within Pakistan's utility sector, research is being
conducted to support the adoption of current renewable energy driven trends
in Pakistan. In order to build a solid foundation for moving forward in
renewable energy, the sustainable energy research team at SDPI is undertaking
projects on the following issues:
Marketability
of Renewable Energy Resources in Pakistan
Renewable
energy systems are expensive in terms of installation costs. The power
from them is also available intermittently - when the renewable source
(for instance, wind or solar energy) is available. On the other hand,
they are free of any input fuel, and hence their ever rising costs. They
also incur much less operation and maintenance costs and are supposed
to have a longer lifetime. Thus, using renewable power looks uneconomical
in the short term, but may turn out profitable in the long term. Therefore,
the key question is what can make investment in renewable power generation
acceptable? The Energy Group at SDPI is conducting research to find answers
to this question through a financial analysis, which looks at the costs
involved in setting up renewable power businesses in Pakistan and in identifying
factors that can help attract investment in the renewable technologies.
The research especially focuses on finding out the cost of renewable power
generation and then on determining a suitable tariff that is acceptable
both to the prospective investor and electricity purchasers in the country.
Thar Coal
The Government
of Pakistan is strongly emphasizing a wide use of the vast deposits of
coal found in the desert of Thar. It is planning to provide incentives
to independent power producers to set up production plants at the mine
sites and to sell electricity to the national grid. It is also urging
cement industries all over the country to use this coal. However, the
coal, low quality lignite, is known to contain significant sulfur concentrations.
Extensive use of this coal is, therefore, likely to substantially increase
environmental degradation, particularly when used in cement plants situated
near cities and towns. Any future use of the Thar coal demands schemes
for removing pollutants, particularly sulfur, and reducing ash contents.
There are several ways of doing this, one among them being the conversion
of coal to Di-methyl ether (DME) or any other compound of higher energy
content. The project will investigate the technology and economics of
pre-combustion conversion of the Thar coal and will advise the government
on the best use of it.
Liberalization and De/regulation of Power sector in Pakistan
Pakistan's
power sector was liberalized in mid 1990s. Since then WAPDA, the state
utility has seen an increase in its losses and has gone bankrupt. The
nature of agreements inked with Independent Power Producers (or IPPs),
drained out WAPDA. Consumers, on the other hand, have constantly suffered
rising tariffs since the inception of private power in Pakistan. WAPDA's
own conditions have deteriorated to an extent that the utility's annual
losses hovers around Rs. 40 billion. Its old and outdated infrastructure
only adds to its woes. The utility's line losses lie between 27-30 percent.
The Government of Pakistan has taken steps to revamp WAPDA, foremost of
which is the unbundling of the utility into distribution and generation
companies. The Energy Group of SDPI is preparing a report, which tries
to address the problems/controversies generated by liberalization and
deregulation of power sector in Pakistan. The report is in its final stages
and would come out soon.
Contact
For more
details on our Renewable Energy/Clean Fuels program please contact Dr
A.H. Nayyar (nayyar@sdpi.org). |
