The Pakistan government is considering the implementation of an electrification project to provide remote coastal villages of Sindh and Balochistan with wind power.
The government has already approved the scheme which involves the installation of wind turbines in collaboration with the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources and the National University of Science and Technology. A pilot project, to be built by the Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies, will be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technology for both power generation and water pumping.
Initial developments will rely on imported wind turbines. At the same time the plan calls for the development of an indigenous technology. One company in Karachi is producing small wind turbines for pumping duties.
In Balochistan, only a quarter of the 13 700 villages are electrified because of the high cost of developing a power infrastructure. With little hope of a centralised grid, renewable resources such as wind and solar energy offer the best hope for a cost-effective supply.
