Renewables as a strategy

Renewables are inevitable in the long term, but don’t solve immediate problems

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for renewable sources to be adopted for power generation to meet future demand, mentioning hydroelectricity, solar power, biogas and other renewable sources. This is hardly radicalism or revolutionary, for the technologies have been around for sometime, but the resistance to anything but oil-generated thermal power is something which can be seen from the attitude of WAPDA and the Power Division towards any technology that does not involve oil or huge amounts of investment on equipment and construction. Solar power and biogas are extremely problematic, it seems, perhaps because they involve empowering the consumer by permitting him or her control over the generation and not just the power company. One of the things about large thermal or hydel plants is that they involve large contracts, with corresponding commissions. Thermal power stations also require imported fuel to operate, on which there are substantial commissions to be earned.

Opposition can perhaps be overcome, though that is something Mr Sharif will have to do first, but time is simply not available. While it is useful to go for renewables, it is not going to solve any of the problems currently faced by the power sector and the economy as a whole. One problem is the long gestation of hydel projects, as well as such renewables as nuclear power. Solar power can be put up earlier, but it depends on having a place to put it. Domestic consumers use their rooftops, but factories need more power. The government should switch over. It would not just mean major savings for the government, but would also set an example.

However, change is never easy. Mr Sharif may judge the kind of resistance his directive will face, and the level, by the response to convert motorcycle users to bike users, where the banking system has basically ensured that the first year of the Accelerated Vehicle Programme has been wasted. The government had targeted 41,000 bikes this fiscal, but while 44,689 applications were received, only 9089 were processed. Of those, only 4075 were approved. The government has launched a new scheme, but that is not the true solution. There has to be a sea change in thinking, which can no longer focus on illegal benefits. There is a clash of cultures here. People who own motorcycles have not borrowed from banks for them. Bankers do not trust them because of that. The appetite is there, but powerful interests also, to stop the changeover, and keep the country dependent on oil imports.