The world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturing company, Vestas, is going to invest in making a wind farm in southern Punjab province in Pakistan.
The Denmark based company has signed a letter of intent with Chief Minister Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif, to build the first 250 MW stage of the Quaid e Azam Wind Park. According to a statement released by the Danish embassy in Islamabad, this wind farm may reach 1,000 MW in the future. Vestas has identified potential sites for the future wind farms.
This is one of the many power generation projects undertaken by the Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif in an effort to reduce Pakistan’s energy deficit. Majority of our power (a total of 25 Giga-watts) comes from hydro-electric power plants like Mangla and Tarbela in addition to fuel based power plants. More power plants are in the pipeline with some being built in collaboration with China in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor deal. These are mostly coal fired power plants with some of them being built near the Thar Coal Project.
Read More: Thar Coal Project Starts, Can Power Pakistan For Over 100 Years
Jesper Moller Sorensen, political director at the Danish embassy said,
This project will contribute greatly to overcoming Punjab’s energy shortage. The government of Denmark stands ready to support the Punjab government with building further capacity and expertise in the field of renewable energy.
The first 250 MW part of the Quaid-e-Azam Wind Park project will start in 2018. Vestas, the Danish embassy and the Punjab provincial government will be working together to gather funds for the project, according to the embassy’s statement.
With the recent Lahore smog fresh in our memories it should be noted that cleaner energy production is always welcome in a country like Pakistan. Although its not as big as the other power projects, it still provides a sliver of hope for the environmentally conscious and for the future of our world as a whole.
Via Bloomberg
