With crippling floods every year and regular power outages, a new internationally financed wind project in Pakistan is breezy green news to us.
Iran, finding itself increasingly isolated due to US-backed sanctions, has been pressing energy-deficient Pakistan to connect with Iran’s natural gas “peace pipeline“. Natural gas is better than coal (which is killing miners) and dirty fuel that Pakistanis use in their households, but it is not the greenest. We laud a new announcement by the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group, which is investing $38.1 million in the company Zorlu Enerji Pakistan Limited, a Turkish energy firm to build what it is calling a landmark wind energy project in Pakistan, the Associated Press Pakistan reports.
The Zorlu Energy Companies Group today has a total installed capacity of 603 MW electricity and 192 tons/hour of steam produced by fourteen power plants – five natural gas, seven hydroelectric, one geothermal, and one fuel-oil – located in different parts of Turkey. The new wind power plant it will build will be located in the Sindh Province, which is still a region risky for investments, due to armed guards attacks.
However, if security needs are met, and we hope they are, the 56.4MW wind project is a step in the right direction in harnessing the global community’s financing dollars for green development. Other investors include the Asian Development Bank, ECO Trade and Development Bank, and Habib Bank which are financing the project which will cost $159 million USD.
Wikipedia editors say that Pakistan plans to produce 2500 MW of wind energy by 2015 to stop crippling power shortages.
In other news the Recharge blog is reporting that the Norwegian company NBT plans to build a 250MW wind farm in Pakistan, possibly in the first stage of what prove to be a $1 billion USD renewable energy scheme in Pakistan. Bring on the wind in Pakistan!
When the Zorlu Energy wind farm will be built it will be only one of two commercially operating wind power projects in Pakistan, and according to the report the deal supports Turkish power entities and their interest entering Pakistan’s renewable energy market.
“IFC’s partnership with Zorlu Enerji, one of our key clients, enables us to extend additional support to the renewable energy sector in Pakistan. We hope this project will stimulate the interest of other investors in harnessing the country’s favorable wind resource,” said Gulrez Hoda, the IFC Director for Infrastructure and Natural Resources in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and North Africa in a press announcement.
The project will help to alleviate Pakistan’s power deficit by developing a local, renewable resource for creating power. It will also contribute to reducing the country’s reliance on imported fuel from countries like Iran for power generation.
Read more on green Pakistan:
Meet the Miss Pakistan of Renewable Energy
Iran Forges Ties With Pakistan for Energy Business
Image of Pakistani boy flying kit via o_O
