With much said about the worsening situation of the energy sector of the country, it is high time that the renewable energy sources are brought into the tightened system on a full fledged basis. In sharp contrast to domestic situation, the world has experienced marvelous transformation in the energy mix, policies and investments in recent years so much so that the perception at times lags far behind the actual status. Where alternate and clean energy is not even in its nascent phase in the country, in several countries it is rapidly increasing its share in fuel consumption including transportation and heating. One such source is biomass which is the fourth largest energy resource after coal, oil and natural gas and the largest renewable option the world has. Yet the situation in Pakistan is in doldrums as it is still to realise the benefits of the abundant resource on hand. An important source of biomass, agriculture continues to be the bread and butter of majority of the population in the country. Its contribution to GDP and labor exceeds 20 percent and 45 percent, respectively. Fortunately, this resource has decentralized availability as Pakistan has a large agricultural and livestock sector producing copious amounts of biomass in form of agriculture and crop residues like rice husk, bagasse, municipal solid waste, animal residue, poultry litter, etc Power generation using biomass is one of the most viable and a convenient option for today as Pakistan is amongst the top sugarcane producers, producing around 50 million tons annually. According to some estimates and preliminary studies, the country has the potential to generate around 3000 - 4000 MW of electricity through sugar mills. Additionally, the urban areas of the country generate around 50,000 to 55,000 tons of solid waste daily, while the agricultural lands produce above 200,000 and 1 million ton of crop residue and manure respectively. This could be a enormous source for bioenergy in the region. However, most of the biomass is currently being used outside commercial economy in households as untreated fuel or for heating purposes with little contribution of 700 MW power from sugar mills. Municipal solid waste is being chucked in open areas with no further processing. On the policy front, the situation has been shoddier as there exists only 2006 policy regarding development of renewable energy for power generation and that too is limited to hydro, solar and wind. The potential economic benefits that biomass can offer to an energy-starved country however, can only relished by circumventing the fossil fuel driven energy generation through alternate energy resources. It calls for three prerequisites: a sound biomass power generation policy, investment in technology for plant setup and finally incentives to draw investors.
===================================================================== Technology Typical scale Range of Cost ===================================================================== Power Generation $/kW $/MWh ===================================================================== Bioenergy (stand alone) 100 kW-100 MW 2,600-4,100 69-150 Bioenergy (cofiring) 20 MW-100 MW 430-900 22-67 Geothermal 10 MW-250 MW 2,000-4,000 50-80 Solar PV (ground mounted & roof to 1 kW-250 MW 2,700-5,800 110-690 Hydro (large) 100 kW-10 000 MW 1,000-2,000 18-100 Hydro (small - med) 100 kW-300 MW 2,000-4,000 50-100 Wind (onshore) 1 kW-500 MW 1,400-2,500 40-160 Wind (offshore) 100 kW-1000 MW 3,200-5,800 100-190 Transport & Fuel $/LGE Bioethanol from sugar & starch 0.6-0.8 Biodiesel from oil crop 0.95-1.05 =====================================================================
Source: IEA- RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY CONSIDERATIONS FOR DEPLOYING RENEWABLES
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