Green needs

An overview of the national energy resources shows that the future development and use of the resources for electricity generation will be strongly influenced by the need to control environmental pollution. Currently, the power generation capacity from all resources is 37,261 MW, while power demand continues to grow rapidly. According to government plans, it should have an installed cumulative power generation capacity of 79,449 MW by 2040.

It is encouraging that the total foreseeable energy resources will readily meet the anticipated projected needs for a considerable period of time. Pakistan has huge coal reserves and abundant and inexhaustible resources for hydropower and renewable energies such as solar and wind power. Only the known recoverable resources of liquid hydrocarbons and natural gas currently seem to be below the expected requirements that are currently being met by imported sources.

The main aim is to meet the increasing energy demand as effectively and inexpensively as possible, to ensure competitive availability and to minimize the environmental impact of the development and use of energy resources. In line with these goals, the recently adopted National Electricity Policy 2020 will focus on increasing nuclear power generation capacities and making optimal use of domestic hydropower and renewable energies. Understandably, politics also aims to address the effects of climate change.

In the wake of international commitments and commitments to control CO2 emissions, the future development and use of fuel resources in Pakistan will be strongly influenced by the urgent need to contain the critical increase in environmental pollution. These include auto exhaust, sulfur dioxide and other fossil fuel combustion products and damage to landscape and land values. The power generation industry is another source of pollution. There is currently a greater reliance on coal (imported and domestic) as well as oil and gas, including RLNG, for power generation. Thermal power plants thus make up 60 percent of the total installed electricity generation capacity.

Clean energy, ie hydropower and renewable or alternative energies, has a share of around 30 or 2 percent of the energy mix, while nuclear energy accounts for 8 percent of electricity generation across all resources. The government wants to increase the share of renewable energies from a minimum to 60 percent by 2030. The planned transition from coal to clean energy is a Herculean task and is not to be expected given the current situation in the power generation mix.

The power generation industry, including its various stages of construction, operation and decommissioning of power plants, causes very large numbers of CO2 emissions that lead to an increase in the earth’s atmospheric CO2, amplifying the greenhouse effect and adding to global warming . Coal-fired power plants are a major source of dangerous air pollutant emissions. In addition to CO2, these cause nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, which contribute to smog and acid rain as well as the formation of fine dust.

Coal-based power generation accounts for over 12 percent of the total generation mix today, excluding a significant number of small coal-fired power plants installed by the cement and chemical industries across the country and coal used for heating purposes. Ironically, the share of coal-based power generation is likely to grow exponentially in the years to come as a number of large-scale power plants using indigenous Thar coal come on line while old inefficient thermal power plants are shut down. Low. Last year, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that he would close the coal-fired power plants that were under construction. However, there have been no practical measures to put these projects on hold as they are implemented under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) program.

Specific technologies are used to mitigate the negative effects of coal mining, transportation and incineration. However, the technology currently used to limit air and water pollution is insufficient to keep pace with projected increases in coal mining and burning. Hydropower does not directly emit air pollutants; However, the development and operation of hydropower projects cause, in addition to various ecological and biological impacts, global warming, emissions and local pollution. Construction of major dam and hydropower projects such as Mohmand, Diamer-Basha and Dasu is currently underway.

On the other hand, nuclear reactors offer a potential means of reducing future air pollution. However, these generate other types of harmful waste and care must continue to be taken to avoid radioactive contamination in reactor operations, waste handling and fuel processing. Pakistan plans to build several nuclear power plants with a cumulative nuclear power generation capacity of 8,900 MWe by 2030. The decommissioning of the outdated KANUPP-1 is also on the agenda.

Wind power does not create toxic pollution or global warming emissions, but has other limitations on the development of large-scale power generation and power evacuation. Pollution from open electrical transmission is a particular government concern over the long term.

The government has developed a policy framework to address various aspects of climate change. However, current efforts and programs in this area need to be complemented and strongly supported. The government should promote pollution control technologies. At the same time, it will be imperative for the government to focus its research and development efforts significantly on mitigating the harmful side effects of the power generation industry. For this purpose, R&D programs are primarily required, which aim both at the assessment of risks to health and the environment and at the economic damage elimination. R&D efforts should aim to reduce environmental damage from energy resources and to develop substitute sources and processes that do not pose environmental problems.

The government has doubled the budget for the science and technology sector and increased it to Rs 31 billion as part of the 2021-22 development budget, with a focus on applied research. The allocation for the Research Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) is Rs 8.341 billion for 24 ongoing and 20 new programs. It is ironic, however, that none of the programs cover research and development in the area of ​​climate change in general, or in the energy sector in particular. Pakistan is also expected to receive US $ 100 billion a year from global communities, the Pakistani representative said at the International Summit on Climate Change on April 22nd this year. Therefore, funding for research and development in the energy sector should not be an issue.

The author is the retired chairman of the State Engineering Corporation

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