KARACHI, Jan 20: The Sindh government is working on 40 different power projects in its wind corridor with a total generation capacity of 2,000 megawatts in next two years, said the provincial secretary of environment and alternative energy department.

The work would also allow the electrification of about 120 schools in rural Sindh, environment and alternative energy secretary Mir Hussain Ali said while addressing a meeting on renewable energy organised by the IUCN-Pakistan on Sunday. Talking about opportunities in the wind corridor, he said that the government was working on about 40 projects with various investors with total generation capacity of 2,000 megawatts in the next two years. “This is despite the fact that renewable energy projects often do not get the green light in the public sector because of the initial costs,” he said.

He said the government was also supplying solar stoves and working on a biogas project worth Rs200 million.

He added that in Mirpurkhas, solar water pumping stations had been installed to meet the demand.

He spoke about the immense potential of biogas at Cattle Colony in Karachi and prospects in coastal areas of Pakistan in connection with wind related projects.

On the occasion, a renowned expert on renewable energy, Carl Pope, in his presentation on ”Renewable energy cheaper in the long run” said that presently over 1.3 billion people in the world were estimated to be living without electricity.

One billion of these people, including 700 million residents of South Asia would remain without electricity until 2030, if the switchover to alternative energy was not made, he warned.—APP