CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), Shah Jahan Mirza, has said that the country has an ambitious goal of adding 14,000 MW of wind and solar energy in the next ten years. National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Chairman Tauseef H Farooqi said that Chinese investors had a pivotal role to play in supporting Pakistan in its journey to privatize energy distribution and modernise transmission while adding the cheapest solar and wind energy to the electricity mix.
Pakistan’s total energy production stood at 7,756 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in February 2023, where the share of renewable energy was around 5%. In this backdrop, the plans of the Government to increase the share of renewable energy to 20% by 2025 and 30% by 2030 is a step in the right direction as it would help overcome the challenges facing the energy sector of the country. Rising circular debts and unaffordability of the tariff for all categories of consumers are among the malaises afflicting the sector and optimum exploitation of the country’s coal reserves and potential for hydel, solar and wind power offers a viable solution of the problem. Plans are there but what we need is the focused attention to remove all bottlenecks in the way of their implementation as these would not only help save precious foreign exchange that we currently spend on import of costly fossil fuel but also bring down the energy tariff to an affordable level. Like IT, solar is the technology of the future but we cannot expect a revolution in the field through imports. We would, therefore, urge the government to make priority but feasible plans for accelerating the pace of local R&D in the field.
