Solar Energy – a Feasible Alternative for Pakistan As is becoming painfully evident with summer around the corner, Pakistan is an exceptionally sunny country. If 0.25% of Balochistan was covered with solar panels with an efficiency of 20%, enough electricity would be generated to cover all of Pakistani demand. In all provinces the AEDB has created 100 solar homes in order to exploit solar energy. Solar energy makes much sense for Pakistan for several reasons: firstly, 70% of the population lives in 50,000 villages that are very far away from the national grid, according to a report by the Solar Energy Research Centre (SERC). Connecting these villages to the national grid would be very costly, thus giving each house a solar panel would be cost efficient and would empower people both economically and socially. In many Pakistani villages, wood and animal dung is used for cooking fuel; however, this is causing widespread deforestation. Women are also forced to walk for many miles each day to gather wood. Then, their health suffers from the smoke emitted from cooking on wood fires. The AEDB completed a project whereby villagers that received solar panels were also given solar cookers. During the project, deforestation decreased by 80% near the villages and the cookers were also made in Pakistan, which generated local economic growth.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 09:49:19 +0000
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