A three day first international exhibition for alternative energy and energy efficiency, organised by Reap concluded on Saturday. Arif Alauddin, CEO Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) was the chief guest at the concluding ceremony.
Appreciating Reap, the registered group of over 150 importers, vendors, manufacturers of RE equipment for organising their first mega event in Islamabad, CEO AEDB said that Reap has been contributing beyond demonstration of Renewable Energy (RE) technologies/equipment in the country; in fact, the Association, playing a significant role towards future of these technologies through policy making, planning and financial measures, he added.
Referring to the attendance of visitors in thousands, he said that exhibition has helped in building consumer confidence on the RE equipment, which was one of the major hurdles in the fast track deployment of RE technologies in the country. The visitors now saw for themselves the performance and utility of these technologies/equipment.
However, he underlined the need of strict quality control and development of standards for all RE equipments, which he said, would largely supplement their confidence building efforts. He hoped that Reap would play its due role in ensuring international quality standards, while importing, manufacturing and selling RE equipment in Pakistan.
About the issue of higher initial/capital cost of RE equipment, he said the issue might be seen in perspective of our needs, effectiveness, availability in abundance, indigenization, ever increasing cost of fossil fuel and fast decreasing reservoirs, healthy environmental impacts etc. The future lies in development of RE technologies, he stressed.
He appreciated Pakistani entrepreneurs for locally manufacturing/assembling various types of RE equipments, such as heat pumps, solar panels, small hydro turbines, small wind turbines, solar cookers, solar water heaters and several other allied equipments to RE technologies.
He also lauded Reap for organising technical workshops besides the Exhibition, where experts made presentations on various aspects of RE technologies like RE Policy, Wind, Hydro, Solar, Solar Tube Wells, Solar Air Conditioning, Biodiesel, Biogas, Geothermal, Carbon Credits (CDM) etc. The session was also attended by the GiZ country head in Pakistan, representatives of World Bank, Unido and a number of local and international non-governmental organisations.-PR