| Popis: |
Pakistan, an agricultural country which has 75% of its people living in villages, cannot be efficiently fed by the major hydro electric and thermal power stations or by natural gas pipelines. Solar, wind energy and biogas are potential sources available, with the advantage of being decentralized, renewable, and non-polluting. A beginning has been made by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission to investigate solar energy installations for solar water heating and cooling, desalination of sea water, solar pumps for irrigation, refrigeration, and air conditioning by using parabolic reflectors and photovoltaics. The Appropriate Technology Development Organization (ATDO) is looking after five wind mills on the coastal area. The biogas potential of the country is high in view of the large number of cattle in the countryside and the cities and towns (where biogas can supplement the conventional sources of energy). ATDO and ERC (Energy Resource Cell of Government of Pakistan) are looking after these projects, with the universities lending a helping hand in research and development. ERC has standardized a family-sized unit of biogas plant producing 130 cu.ft. of biogas/day (equaling two tons of kerosene per year). Already 75 such plants have been installed. Community-sized gas plants have also been designed and installed to produce 2,000 cu.ft. of gas per day, saving 30 tons of kerosene per annum. The paper ends with the suggestions to formulate long and short term coordinated programs, to provide funds and subsidies to those interested in the manufacture, and steps to be taken by the information media to popularize these energy sources for tomorrow. |
