KARACHI, March 30: Some 80 million people and 40,000 villages are without access to electricity and almost exclusive use of noncommercial fuel for cooking and heating by rural population has serious consequences.

This was stated by Dr Graeme Towers, CEO of Wellbeinggreen from Australia, who participated in an exhibition and conference, which concluded at the Expo Centre on Wednesday.

More than 210 stalls were set up at the exhibition, where 86 international and domestic exhibitors showcased their products and services. Over 51 foreign delegates from 13 countries, including Australia, Turkey, Canada, Germany, India, the UAE and UK, also attended the event.

Dr Towers said Pakistan obtained its major energy needs from a variety of fuel sources, adding that the “household sector still accounts for 50 per cent of total energy consumption of which biomass provides 78pc.”

Unfortunately, he said, in the household sector the dependence on biomass was not on renewable sources but on forest resource depletion. “It is a very dangerous trend considering the fast increasing needs for energy in this sector,” he said.

The continued use of traditional fuels carries significant socio-economic and environmental costs, he said, adding that impacts were seen most clearly in rural households, where the consumption of noncommercial energy was mostly concentrated.

He said the rural electrification of villages was being implemented close to the grid by the Pakistan Electric Power Company.Explaining the Wellbeinggreen Rural Lighting Programme, he said the provision of solar-powered lanterns to un-electrified rural households in Pakistan, replacing the kerosene lantern as the lighting source, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions was a big challenge He said shifting from traditional and polluting fuels to renewable energy and modern biomass technologies was imperative.

“We need to replace kerosene as the source of lighting and firewood as the fuel for cooking and heating,” he said, adding:

“Solar-powered lighting and agricultural waste rather than firewood provide potential solutions”.

Most areas of Pakistan offered excellent conditions for harnessing solar energy, he said.The challenges are enormous in promoting the adoption of alternative technologies such as biogas plants based on dairy manure, efficient solar and biomass based cooking stoves, biomass gasification units for micro power generation, and solar lighting and home systems.

He said the total expenditure by 13 million rural households on biomass was $750 million a year, which was more than 50pc of the total official development assistance received by Pakistan per annum.

He said shifting from traditional and polluting fuels to renewable energy and modern biomass technologies was imperative, and Pakistan needed to replace kerosene as the source of lighting and firewood as the fuel for cooking and heating. Solar-powered lighting and agricultural waste rather than firewood provided potential solutions, he said.