Re: Pakistan & Solar Energy
In Pakistan, it’s difficult to mention ‘energy’ without the word ‘crisis’ and it’s generally down to incompetency of the government, and every government that has been in power from the late 80’s. It’s an issue that deeply affects the social harmony and creates discord between the affluent and the underprivileged. If you’re well off nothing stops you from purchasing alternatives. Not something the poor can do which has led to many protests. Notably and understandably the torching of government building arises during such confrontation. At its peak power shortage can reach 20 hours a day. Pakistans requirement of energy is about 7500MW at its height and only 40% of the demand can be supplied.
To answer your question Pakistan is a country that heavily relies on energy and in particular fossil fuels. Its economy is as fragile as glass, if not more. Pakistan spends about $10Bn+ a year on importing such fuels. This naturally eats into Pakistans foreign reserves. However, more importantly, when there are shocks on the commodity market of such fuels the impact on Pakistan is grave as there are inflationary prices which affect other goods and services. To top this off if there is a shortage of energy this unsurprisingly means that our very small sector of export orientated manufacturers face the brunt and with power cuts this makes shamelessly inefficient. This drives up costs and the loss of business due to ineffective or lack thereof production makes it’s harder to make profits. Therefore, first thing is the manufactures or industries simply don’t have the electricity required to produce products that can compete with other countries and this has resulted in countries such as India and Bangladesh taking the business. This affects the manufacturing sector country wide. The province of Punjab and Sindh are the economy of Pakistan. Other provinces rely on their eastern counterparts to make profit. Due to the power shortage this can’t happen. This leads to increased imports and the domestic economy suffers. Almost self-inflicted death. Pakistan should look up to India and Bangladesh who are making huge strides in resolving their energy needs. I have read somewhere and cannot verify but the total loss reaches somewhere near the $20bn mark per annum, plus 2% of total GDP. The losses are inclusive of investments of domestic and FDI. The funny thing in a pathetic kind of way is the fact the government provides subsides for the energy industry however, due to chronic corruption and failure to deliver has resulted in something called circular debt. Look it up if you wish.
It’s not a question of which industries suffer it’s much larger and inclusive. The whole country suffers. From the farmers of the Punjab to the processing plants in Karachi. Everyone and everything is suffering. A chronic problem which is in need of someone with enough bottle to challenge those bureaucrats and to actually do something rather than sit there make excuses year after year. It kind of saddens me that there is so much failure amongst a country that has so much potential.
Moving on, rant over. Lol. Renewable energy is available in abundance in Pakistan especially Kashmir. Solar and wind energy are probably the best suited for success. It’s probably time for businesses to stop relying on the government and to start thinking creatively about the generation of electricity. Now, the set up cost of solar panel is expensive and for the majority of people including businesses will be out of their reach. I think something you need to consider is the fact most private businesses in Pakistan are small to medium sized. Majority of the biggest firms are government owned or controlled in some sort of manner and I’m not sure how receptive they will be to the idea of renewable energy. The industrialist powerhouses (which include officials) have stakes in these fossil fuel companies. You taking business away from them equates a loss and as we all know they only care for their own pockets not the interests of the country.
UPS is a form of short termism and ineffective in the long run. These generators run off diesel or petrol and still mean increased costs and should be used as a backup in my opinion which is the current use naturally. By that I mean a back up to a renewable form of energy. However, the setup is not expensive compared to a renewable source thus making this attractive to those businesses who simply can’t afford green energy.
Yes, the setup of green energy in the long run is definitely worth it in financial terms and even morally. However, set up is still expensive whether you’re in the UK (as me) or in Pakistan. Although, I do feel the most difficult part will be the ‘change’ and that can only happen by the people/industrialists. However, something that does work in the favour of the entrepreneur is location of Pakistan; such close proximity to China allows the sourcing of materials much easier and cheaper.
At the end of the day people and businesses alike are looking for change however, they need a little shove in the right direction as only someone special with inspirational leadership who comes into power can resolve this issue on the national scale which I’m afraid looks bleak to almost impossible.
Wow, this is one long post and I should conclude. I think if someone can provide efficiently priced alternative energy or the use of alternative energy it can trigger a mass noticeable change. I would personally concentrate on Solar and Wind energy. This is an effective and almost guaranteed way of generating energy. It’s a tedious and long term task but when the people can take charge themselves then you can almost stick up two fingers towards the government. All they have done is bleed this country dry.
Out of curiosity is this some sort of business venture you’re interested in or a university project? Either way large chunks of this are an essay I did at university and is logged on the world citation system. Just thought I’d let you know. Hopefully that answers your questions. :)