Dear Everyone
1) Why now to involve ICT grant initiative in prototype building ? The purpose of research and product development can both be served with this. Alternate Energy Board (http://www.aedb.org/Main.htm) is working in Pakistan for the promotion of Renewables. COMSATS Islamabad has also demonstrated some prototypes as well.
2) I think that there are some government regulations on commercial power generation which are the reason for lack of interest of private investors. The centralized system along with these restrictions hampers the development of such initiatives. For example, how would we be able to transmit the power to the consumers, without using the existing grid network. There are numerous initiatives and ways in which energy crisis can be addressed, CPS is not the only option.
3) Concentrated Solar Power has been deployed rapidly by Spain in recent years. A CSP plant in Mojave Desert Project , USA has been operating since 1984. There are some issues with CPS as well, otherwise it would have been an open choice for countries. There are alot of ongoing projects under development in different countries. The cost of production is still around USD 0.10 to 0.20 per Watt. This cost is comparable to the existing cost of generation based on fossil fuels and is still considered high. The acquisition of the land with the required annual solar irradiation for optimum efficiency is another key aspect. The cost per watt (or you can say efficiency) plays a vital role in such projects.
4) As far as industrial partnership is concerned, I would say where we would be having our power plant ? On the industrial site ? I seriously doubt it. Who would be maintaining it and from where the skilled manpower will come from ? the current unemployed Engg graduates ? I seriously doubt it again (Most of them are not trained and taught in this sector). Sorry to say the domestic market doesn't have the skill set to develop high quality, industrial grade equipment as well. We don't have the the required trained personnel in this domain to manage the system/project we are looking up to. Middle East is a big market for people trained in Power sector. It would be very much an issue of retaining skilled people on the project. I would say it would be equally a technical challenge as much as a business challenge in the current circumstances.
5) Private partnerships in energy sector are always long term. We have to seek long term investors who are ready to invest but the current situation of the country doesn't allow it. Even the domestic investors are moving to Srilanka, Bangladesh and even India for investment. (Packages started a complete plant in Srilanka just like the one they have in Lahore during last five years.)
6) Integration of Renewable requires a nation wide policy. Initial subsidies will be required to promote the trend. Countries like Germany , Spain , Denmark and US has given alot of subsidies in the tariff plan and other tax rebates to its citizen for the promotion of renewables. MASDAR - UAE has a complete renewable policy and have all of the investors in the world willing to invest there. They have a complete university setup for this purpose in collaboration with MIT to train and develop the required skill set and awareness. The situation is not like this in our country.
7) Keeping in view the current installed capacity in our country, most of the plants are not running because of the circular debt. It is only because of the mismanagement of the government that we are facing this.
Regards
Ahmad Usman
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta - Georgia
USA
+01-678-702-2360
To: pakgrid@yahoogroups.com
From: ali_mansoor_kh@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:11:10 -0700
Subject: Re: [pakgrid] We need to seriously look at Concentrated Solar Power for Pakistan
| I fully agree with Dr Qasim, issue is commercialization. One of the way I have seen a person try to do this is by doing a contract with a bank, and leasing the equipment to the customer financed by bank. That way the burden of financing is taken off from the client and company but there is the issue of Riba. Another way I see this happening is for people to actually finance a solar panel as a business investment and become private power supplier to an industrial unit requiring 100KVA of power and then agree on a rate of supplying power. This way the industrial unit will not be burdened and the financier can have good return by selling electricity. The biggest hurdle will be that both units (power supplier and industry) will be tied up for a long time. Regards, Ali Khawaja --- On Mon, 3/18/13, Qasim Sheikh <qs358@yahoo.com> wrote:
|
__._,_.___
| Reply via web post | Reply to sender | Reply to group | Start a New Topic | Messages in this topic (11) |
.
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment