KARACHI: The Sindh government is striving for overcoming energy crisis in the province through wind power as nine wind energy projects are underway in coastal area of Sindh, which will produce 477 megawatts of electricity by September next year.
According to a state-run Radio report, Sindh has almost 55,000 MW wind energy potential in Jamshoro and Thatta districts. Under Pakistan Vision 2025, Sindh has submitted plans of at least 4,000 MW renewable energy projects by 2020 to meet the energy needs. Official sources said that nine wind turbine generator (WTG) projects are in advanced stage of development, while the other nine are under-construction and four have got their letters of intent (LoIs).
Many more are under process and documentation. The estimated energy potential of the wind corridor is 50,000MW. Besides Gharo, several other sites have been identified in coastal areas of Balochistan and Northern areas.
Presently five WTG projects each with 50MW capacity are operating at Gharo-Jhampir wind corridor. However, the nine other WTG projects which are in the phase of development will produce 450MW and those in the stage of construction will produce 480MW wind energy. Similarly, four projects which have been given LoIs will produce 350MW.
Mohammad Kasim Hasham, whose company Uni-Energy has recently been LoI, said that with 100 per cent foreign financing the total cost of wind power project comes to $107.50 million, and in case of local financing the cost is estimated at $113m. The annual operational and maintenance cost in both the cases is only $2.196m.
Javed Akhtar group in joint venture with Tapal and Candyland is also setting up 30MW capacity WTG project that will become functional early next year. He lamented the loss of time in introducing wind power, but was optimistic that private sector would actively engage and pull the nation out of energy crisis.
