Prospects for secure and sustainable electricity supply for Pakistan

Fossil fuel reserves are diminishing rapidly across the world, intensifying the stress on existing reserves day-by-day due to increased demand. Not only that, fossil fuels, presently contributing to 80% of world primary energy, are inflicting enormous impacts on environment. Energy sector has a key role in this regard since energy during its production, distribution and consumption is responsible for producing environmentally harmful substances. There is an urgent need for a quicker switch over of energy systems from conventional to renewables that are sustainable and can meet the present and projected world energy demand. Hydrogen, in the capacity of energy vector and storage medium is expected to be the optimum solution for intermittency and storage of energy produced by renewables. Within the context of Pakistan solar and wind power are two of the most promising renewables. In this article, the current energy consumption for Pakistan is presented and the issue of security of electrical energy supply is discussed. Furthermore, the prospects for a large-scale switch over to renewables are also addressed and the relevant economies and underpinning rationale provided. It has been found that solar energy is a much more economical choice for Pakistan as compared to wind energy-respective costs for solar and wind energy are (US cents/kWh) 20 and 77. This is due to the fact barring the four monsoon months, the average wind speed for the remaining 8 months does not cross an economic threshold. On the contrary, it was found that solar energy has a fairly stable and consistent availability.