Pakistan's 346 Gigawatts of electrical potential through wind energy.

[Kompromat]

Wind energy project in Jhimpir to begin soon

Our Reporter | Metropolitan > Karachi | From the Newspaper
24th February, 2012

Pakistan had the potential to produce up to 346 gigawatts of electricity through wind energy alone provided we utilised the potential and more companies start building wind energy projects in the country, Tariq Izaz said.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s first 50-megawatt wind energy project at Jhimpir in Thatta district will start its trial electricity production in June, which will be provided to the national grid free till the start of commercial operation in November.

This was stated by Tariq Izaz, project director of the FFC Energy Limited (FFCEL), on Thursday while briefing the media on the location, where the project is in its final stage of completion.

Pakistan had the potential to produce up to 346 gigawatts of electricity through wind energy alone provided we utilised the potential and more companies start building wind energy projects in the country, he said.

Mr Izaz said if Pakistan produced just 10 per cent of the available wind energy potential, that is 34GW, in the next 15-20 years, it would be well on the path to energy security and prosperity.

The company has acquired 1,283 acres for the project and spent about $135 million on the project. The FFCEL will subsequently increase the energy production capacity through wind power projects to 250MW. Currently the company is installing 33 wind turbines.

He claimed that the project had achieved 60pc completion target. Seventeen sets of wind turbines and blades had already arrived here, and the remaining 16 turbines and blades were scheduled to reach Karachi in March. Seven wind turbines had been installed and 25 towers were in different stages of manufacturing at the Karachi Manufacturing Works, Bin Qasim.

Concrete pouring of 23 turbine foundations had been completed and civil works were in different stages on the remaining 10 foundations, he said.

Besides, he said, the construction of three kilometers of access road, 18km internal roads, culverts over the gas line, and temporary site facilities had been completed.

Wind energy project in Jhimpir to begin soon | Sci-tech | DAWN.COM

 

[IndoUS]

What about solar power??

There should be a great potential in having solar farm.

 

[eik_pagall]

Pakistan has rich resources but the corrupt Governments have no time

 

[kingkobra]

What about solar power??

There should be a great potential in having solar farm.

problem with wind power and solar power is that it requires huge land..plus you can not shut down conventional power plants just because you have surplus wind power...

 

[eik_pagall]

problem with wind power and solar power is that it requires huge land..plus you can not shut down conventional power plants just because you have surplus wind power...

Pakistan has huge land for all this. Desert would be best for solar and coastal belt is best for wind

 

[yyetttt]

Yes! Exactly what we needed! Now we should invest in solar energy! All solar energy should be in Balochistan and wind power should be in Sindh!

 

[zip]

First take small steps like
*making solar water heater compulsory for newly constructed buildings
*give tariff subsidy from electricity board to the houses which is having solar panel
*encourage private companies in these nonconventional energy sector
*develop smart model of hybrid system(small solar panel and small wind turbine) so that individual houses can entirely depend on this system for their energy requirement (solar panel in day light ,wind turbine at night) give 50% subsidy on this model

overall massive privatisation of this industry with govt subsidy is needed

 

[eik_pagall]

Street lights should be put on solar energy as well

 

[asim595]

What about solar power??

There should be a great potential in having solar farm.

Both are having high potential for the country.

 

[FaujHistorian]

Wind energy project in Jhimpir to begin soon

Our Reporter | Metropolitan > Karachi | From the Newspaper
24th February, 2012

Pakistan had the potential to produce up to 346 gigawatts of electricity through wind energy

Issue is not just "potential",

it is also about cost per unit (without subsidies).

Wind and solar have some of the highest costs per unit when you consider life time expenses (from installation all the way to years of services).

Lot of people look at just one thing. Fuel cost. and ignore installation cost, number of hours the energy is available in 24 hours. etc.

What about solar power??

There should be a great potential in having solar farm.

See my response above

 

[Faiez]

Issue is not just "potential",

it is also about cost per unit (without subsidies).

Wind and solar have some of the highest costs per unit when you consider life time expenses (from installation all the way to years of services).

Lot of people look at just one thing. Fuel cost. and ignore installation cost, number of hours the energy is available in 24 hours. etc.

See my response above

No they don't have super high cost per kw-hr. Atleast not in pakistan where labor is cheap and regulations are non-existent.

Wind is available 24/7 roughly. And pakistan does have some decent windy areas with good wind potential. You need atleast 5-6m/s wind continuous to make any power. Continuous 6-12m/s is where it would probably be feasible. This is for the usual ones. Then there's low speed turbines designed specially to run in lower speed winds. They are significantly less efficient and so more capital investment is required.

You need around ~$2 million, maybe a little less to setup one single wind turbine that produces continuously about 1 MW (In the right area with continuous wind speed avg. of 8m/s or more). If you do that, you get a rate of return on investment of atleast 16% per annum after tax assuming selling price of rs.8/kw-hr, operating cost of 10% of sales (which is still on the higher side), corporate tax rate of 25% (less than 250m revenue) and a sales tax of 17%. I don't know if all of these taxes are actually applicable on this kind of business, I remember there being many incentives, but don't remember what those were.

But let's assume a major industrial group invests in a wind plant for it's own use, cost per kw-hr would be less than rs.4.5/kw-hr, assuming the project is entirely funded by a bank loan with lending rate of 14% and the site has an avg. wind speed of atleast 8m/s.

This is actually feasible.

But this estimate of 346 GW is probably not an accurate figure. The actual economically tap-able potential is likely to be much less than that.

Also wind and solar power is one of the simplest power sources to implement. There's very little management required, very little operation cost, and no worry about logistics etc for fuel/oil etc like most other power systems have. Plus it's relatively simple in design.