(10 Jan, 2018)
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said the cost of clean energy has come down substantially while its efficiency has increased therefore this sector should be promoted.
Renewable energy is now cheaper than the dirty energy. It is not only environmentally friendly but it also helps save foreign exchange for oil and coal importing countries, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the world had already decided to abandon coal which will take time but even now it has resulted in closing down of hundreds of coal-fired power plants as well as coal mines which has also resulted in a massive cut in investment in this sector.
The coal production in 2016 fell by 6.2 percent which is six times greater than whole energy consumed by Pakistan in one year.
On the other hand, the cost of renewable power production has come down by 79 percent since 2009 and it fell 26 percent in just one year which has resulted in interest of investors and governments in this promising sector.
The continued fall in the cost of establishing wind or solar power plants and 100 percent increase in efficiency of wind turbines has pushed down the per unit price of renewable energy less than that generated through coal or nuclear means.
The developments are so encouraging that some oil producing nation has also jumped on the bandwagon bewildering the energy experts.
India also plans to generate one hundred and fifty thousand megawatts of clean energy by 2022 for which ten billion dollars are being spent annually, renewable energy has gained a share of ten percent in America while China remains the largest investor in this sector.
A country like Pakistan having a perpetual balance of payments crisis should leapfrog towards renewable energy to resolve the most pressing issue, the former minister said.
