LAHORE: The government is paying special attention to exploit the potential of indigenous energy resources in order to produce cheap electricity and reduce reliance on imported fuel.

There is a renewed focus on Thar coal which was neglected by the previous government. About 3300 megawatts of electricity is being produced from Thar.

Over the last one year, four Thar coal projects, have been completed, sources said, adding: “The coalition government has also envisaged ten thousand megawatts of solarization project. This also includes solarization of government buildings. The government is also seeking foreign investment in this green energy initiative.”

Focus is on tapping indigenous renewable energy resources, including wind, solar and bagasse, to increase the country’s installed energy generation capacity to meet soaring domestic and industrial demand while reducing its dependence on the costly imported fuel amid an ongoing economic crisis, the sources said.

Amid the economic crunch and a struggle to revive a stalled $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program, the country has decided to increase its installed energy capacity of more than 77 percent through indigenous resources to save precious foreign exchange used to import the fuel for energy, the sources claimed.

“We are working hard to drastically reduce our reliance on the imported fuel for energy by switching to indigenous resources of solar, wind, coal and bagasse by 2031,” an official said, adding: “Pakistan’s dependence on imported fuel would drastically reduce from current 45 percent to less than 23 percent in 2031.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023