The final frontier
Renewable energy
At the very least, solar energy should provide a solution to the domestic sector energy crisis By Asad Ullah Kamran
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s load shedding continues to pick up tempo, the overall political and economic uncertainty isn’t helping. Fuel prices have soared worldwide and continue to remain skittish, adding to the budget deficit when combined with soaring inflation it’s a recipe for disaster. Despite consistent statements by the current government, the energy outlook of the country remains in shambles and critical economic decisions remain pending. To be fair, the issues had been brewing before the vote of no confidence took place and the government shifted hands. The absence of electricity in cities
ENERGY
throughout Pakistan during the ongoing heat wave has sparked an outcry from people. Although the energy situation isn’t getting better and protests against these outages continue, the current government seems to be leaning more and more towards renewables. And since the renewable energy solution providers are ready to pounce on this opportunity, clear and supportive government policies are necessary to spur this growth. The energy mix on average has only about 2.6% coming from renewables excluding hydel, taking into consideration the data from September last year to March of the current year. This is considered to be ap-
palling and both private and public sector entities are driving ahead to change this. The Pakistan Energy Reform Summit was a testament to the willingness of government and private entities to refocus efforts on renewables.
State of the sector
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he current state of affairs in both the economic and political domains has been dismal and disappointing on all fronts and has contributed to worsening the already trembling economy. Long power outages throughout Pakistan have become somewhat of a new norm going back to before the vote of no confidence. Although as per NEPRA the energy supply is adequate enough to deal with the demand, and in some scenarios more than the demand. However despite this stance power outages have not subsided.
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