Living in the twenty-first century, we are faced with atypical challenges, demanding non-traditional and extraordinary responses. Climate change and global warming are threats that have surfaced on the scene in this century, and crammed both the natural and social sciences communities equitably. The disruption of delicate poise of all variables in earth's climate has been linked with global warming, resulting mainly from the burning of fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas. The carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from the fossil fuel burning, especially after the Industrial Revolution in the mid-nineteenth century, is resulting in unprecedented changes in earth's ecology.
According to Fourth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average global temperature is expected to increase by 1.8-4.0 degrees Celsius over this century, resulting in increased frequency and intensity of extreme climate events – such as heavy rains, severe sea storms, droughts, glaciers retreat, sea level rise, etc – causing large-scale damages. There is an emerging consensus in both the scientific and political communities that the global warming must not exceed 2.0 degrees Celsius in order to keep the magnitude and extent of climate change within manageable limits, but this level can only be reached with drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists are riveting on the agendas of cleaner and efficient energy technologies, and of reducing the world's energy dependence on fossil fuels. Renewable energy technologies characteristically generate energy from , such as , , hydel, biomass, , etc. Renewable energy systems encompass a broad, diverse array of technologies, and the current status of these varies considerably. Some technologies are already mature and economically competitive, such as geothermal and hydropower, while others need additional support to become competitive without subsidies.
By their nature, renewable energy sources are generally carbon-free or carbon neutral. Most long-term energy projections show that renewable energy will play a major role in the global energy supply in the second half of this century, with capacity increasing gradually in the first three decades. According to 2006 report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), titled Changing Climates: The Role of Renewable Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World, the global energy demand will continue to grow, increasing by approximately 50-60 percent by 2030; hence, renewable energy technologies at a competitive cost offer promising prospects of meeting the world's energy needs as well as of fighting global warming.
Starting on April 22, 1970, from Kent in the United States, each year the world marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement for healthy and sustainable environment. The Earth Day 1990 went global, giving a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helping pave the way for the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. At the turn of the century, the Earth Day had Internet to help link activists around the world, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. The Earth Day 2000 sent the message loud and clear that citizens the world around wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy.
The Earth Day 2009, being celebrated today, will mark the beginning of the Green Generation Campaign – a two-year initiative striving for a carbon-free future based on that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels – that will culminate with the 40th anniversary of the Earth Day in 2010. In Pakistan, the World Earth Day with focus on renewable energy has a special significance of providing us the opportunity to concentrate on alternate energy resources (renewable energy), not only to meet the growing energy demands of expanding economy but also to be environment friendly.
The worst power crisis has been demonstrating itself acutely for the last two years. The long hours of terrible load shedding paint a grim and bleak scenario, making even the more skeptical to reassess their opinion on renewable and localised energy generation for Pakistan's major population centres. According to Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) sources, Pakistan has a total electrical energy capacity of 19,522 megawatts (with a shortfall of over 6,000 megawatts), of which 64 percent is produced by the burning of fossil fuels, 33 percent by hydel sources and only 2 percent by nuclear sources.
In recent years, the annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate has been 7 percent, while the corresponding increase in demand for electricity has been 8-12 percent per annum. The demand for electricity is projected to be 162,590 megawatts by 2030, with a shortfall of over 143,000 megawatts, requiring an investment of $150 billion. According to the Mid-Term Development Framework (MTDF), prepared by the Planning Commission of Pakistan, 5 percent of energy demand is to be met by renewable sources by 2030. However, predominant sources of energy remain natural gas (45 percent), followed by oil (19 percent) and coal (18.5 percent).
The geo-strategic location of Pakistan offers a paradigm of inexhaustible renewable energy projects. Solar, wind and mini-hydel energy options are more feasible, given the geography and climatic conditions as well as the maturity of the technology worldwide, but options of bio-fuel are also being explored. Wind energy is now almost competitive with natural gas-derived electricity, and solar is not that far behind as well. Many European countries and the US have carried out successful experiments. India too has made huge inroads into these two sectors.
According to AEDB sources, the current alternate renewable energy capacity of the country (excluding large hydro projects of over 50 megawatts capacity) is about 25 megawatts, but the potential is gigantic: marking 346,000 megawatts from wind and 2.9 million megawatts from solar energy. The revelations are woozy and boggle every Pakistani that why we are not exploiting this potential? In addition, potential for other alternate renewable energy technologies – such as geothermal, wave energy, tidal energy, biomass, etc – has not been researched to date. Given the right kind of support, over 10,000 megawatts can be added to the national capacity through renewable energy resources by 2030.
There are ambitious plans to install projects generating 700 megawatts of wind energy at Keti Bandar and Gharo through the private sector; develop solar products, such as solar lights, solar fans, solar cooker, solar geyser, etc; provide electricity to already identified 8,000 remote, off-grid villages in Balochistan and Sindh through renewable energy sources; and replace 5 percent of total annual diesel consumption with bio-diesel by 2015 and 10 percent by 2025. What we really need is a focussed and integrated effort, commitment, and proper planning to meet the energy needs of the country using clean mechanisms.
The lack of coordination between various agencies responsible for developing the alternate renewable energy sector must be addressed. Tariff subsidies need to be considered to attract investors. Laws and taxes should be designed to encourage self energy generation by the domestic sector, such as use of solar heating, solar geysers, etc. A growing renewable energy industry would offer new prospects of employment and business opportunities to local manufacturers and service providers. Investment in renewable energy, conforming to international concerns of low-carbon economy, is a win-win game and the government should focus on it without further delay.
According to Fourth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average global temperature is expected to increase by 1.8-4.0 degrees Celsius over this century, resulting in increased frequency and intensity of extreme climate events – such as heavy rains, severe sea storms, droughts, glaciers retreat, sea level rise, etc – causing large-scale damages. There is an emerging consensus in both the scientific and political communities that the global warming must not exceed 2.0 degrees Celsius in order to keep the magnitude and extent of climate change within manageable limits, but this level can only be reached with drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists are riveting on the agendas of cleaner and efficient energy technologies, and of reducing the world's energy dependence on fossil fuels. Renewable energy technologies characteristically generate energy from , such as , , hydel, biomass, , etc. Renewable energy systems encompass a broad, diverse array of technologies, and the current status of these varies considerably. Some technologies are already mature and economically competitive, such as geothermal and hydropower, while others need additional support to become competitive without subsidies.
By their nature, renewable energy sources are generally carbon-free or carbon neutral. Most long-term energy projections show that renewable energy will play a major role in the global energy supply in the second half of this century, with capacity increasing gradually in the first three decades. According to 2006 report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), titled Changing Climates: The Role of Renewable Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World, the global energy demand will continue to grow, increasing by approximately 50-60 percent by 2030; hence, renewable energy technologies at a competitive cost offer promising prospects of meeting the world's energy needs as well as of fighting global warming.
Starting on April 22, 1970, from Kent in the United States, each year the world marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement for healthy and sustainable environment. The Earth Day 1990 went global, giving a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helping pave the way for the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. At the turn of the century, the Earth Day had Internet to help link activists around the world, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. The Earth Day 2000 sent the message loud and clear that citizens the world around wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy.
The Earth Day 2009, being celebrated today, will mark the beginning of the Green Generation Campaign – a two-year initiative striving for a carbon-free future based on that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels – that will culminate with the 40th anniversary of the Earth Day in 2010. In Pakistan, the World Earth Day with focus on renewable energy has a special significance of providing us the opportunity to concentrate on alternate energy resources (renewable energy), not only to meet the growing energy demands of expanding economy but also to be environment friendly.
The worst power crisis has been demonstrating itself acutely for the last two years. The long hours of terrible load shedding paint a grim and bleak scenario, making even the more skeptical to reassess their opinion on renewable and localised energy generation for Pakistan's major population centres. According to Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) sources, Pakistan has a total electrical energy capacity of 19,522 megawatts (with a shortfall of over 6,000 megawatts), of which 64 percent is produced by the burning of fossil fuels, 33 percent by hydel sources and only 2 percent by nuclear sources.
In recent years, the annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate has been 7 percent, while the corresponding increase in demand for electricity has been 8-12 percent per annum. The demand for electricity is projected to be 162,590 megawatts by 2030, with a shortfall of over 143,000 megawatts, requiring an investment of $150 billion. According to the Mid-Term Development Framework (MTDF), prepared by the Planning Commission of Pakistan, 5 percent of energy demand is to be met by renewable sources by 2030. However, predominant sources of energy remain natural gas (45 percent), followed by oil (19 percent) and coal (18.5 percent).
The geo-strategic location of Pakistan offers a paradigm of inexhaustible renewable energy projects. Solar, wind and mini-hydel energy options are more feasible, given the geography and climatic conditions as well as the maturity of the technology worldwide, but options of bio-fuel are also being explored. Wind energy is now almost competitive with natural gas-derived electricity, and solar is not that far behind as well. Many European countries and the US have carried out successful experiments. India too has made huge inroads into these two sectors.
According to AEDB sources, the current alternate renewable energy capacity of the country (excluding large hydro projects of over 50 megawatts capacity) is about 25 megawatts, but the potential is gigantic: marking 346,000 megawatts from wind and 2.9 million megawatts from solar energy. The revelations are woozy and boggle every Pakistani that why we are not exploiting this potential? In addition, potential for other alternate renewable energy technologies – such as geothermal, wave energy, tidal energy, biomass, etc – has not been researched to date. Given the right kind of support, over 10,000 megawatts can be added to the national capacity through renewable energy resources by 2030.
There are ambitious plans to install projects generating 700 megawatts of wind energy at Keti Bandar and Gharo through the private sector; develop solar products, such as solar lights, solar fans, solar cooker, solar geyser, etc; provide electricity to already identified 8,000 remote, off-grid villages in Balochistan and Sindh through renewable energy sources; and replace 5 percent of total annual diesel consumption with bio-diesel by 2015 and 10 percent by 2025. What we really need is a focussed and integrated effort, commitment, and proper planning to meet the energy needs of the country using clean mechanisms.
The lack of coordination between various agencies responsible for developing the alternate renewable energy sector must be addressed. Tariff subsidies need to be considered to attract investors. Laws and taxes should be designed to encourage self energy generation by the domestic sector, such as use of solar heating, solar geysers, etc. A growing renewable energy industry would offer new prospects of employment and business opportunities to local manufacturers and service providers. Investment in renewable energy, conforming to international concerns of low-carbon economy, is a win-win game and the government should focus on it without further delay.
No comments:
Post a Comment