The Board of Directors of Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) on Tuesday approved the extension of short-term renewable energy policy till December this year. The decision was taken at the 17th meeting of the board that was chaired by Federal Minister for Water and Power and Chairman AEDB Raja Pervez Ashraf.
The short term policy approved by the federal cabinet in December 2006 was meant for successful business and technology demonstration, appropriate regulatory framework, market and resource assessment, rural energy programme design, pilot testing of decentralised energy provision, capacity building, development of RE financing and market facilitation measures. This policy was to be taken over by more comprehensive medium term policy, which is still under formulation. The board also decided to approach provincial governments for provision of wasteland for bio-diesel plantation.
Several private sector organisations have shown interest in bio-diesel production and have sought land for plantations. Bio-diesel can be extracted from Sunflower, Canola, Mustard, Rape seed, Soyabean, Pongame (Sukh-Chaien), Castor Seed and Jatropha.
It is estimated that the country can cut its import bill by Rs 80 billion if only 10 percent of the diesel consumed in the country (0.8 million tons) is switched to bio diesel. The board decided to facilitate provision of land to private firms interested bio-diesel projects. The board reviewed the progress on wind energy projects and directed that all bottlenecks in the expeditious completion of the projects be removed.-PR