APROPOS the letter ‘Energy and Germany’ (Jul 26). The author states that Punjab should learn from Germany which will be the first country in the world after 15 years to acquire electricity from solar, wind and biomass. He further says that Germany intends to dismantle all its nuclear and coal-based power generation plants.

I’d like to add another source of energy in the list; the hydro-electric source should also be tapped as it is the cheapest source of power generation in the world. The basic requirement is flow of water and the turbine(s).

Our government insists on installing coal-fired power plants while many countries of the world are phasing them out. The government plans to install 10 coal-fired power plants of 660 MW each at Gadani in Balochistan to ease power shortage. These power plants would be run on imported coal while the country already possesses vast reserves of coal - around 185 billion tons .

This means that now besides importing costly oil, the nation will also import coal from abroad which seems like jumping out of the fry pan into the fire.

The government should opt for generating electricity from hydro-power, sun, wind and biomass. It should divert the amount to be spent on setting-up coal-fired power plants to these sources of energy generation. It will also help to avoid the vicious circular debt.

We’ve already paid Rs 480 billion for the circular debt of the IPPs when the PML-N came to power. But, it has again raised its head. How are we going to pay this time?

Air Cdre (R) Azfar A Khan

Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015

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