Unprecedented energy crisis has dealt a fatal blow to the economy of Pakistan, shattering both agriculture and industry sector, and in this bleak scenario the option of alternate energy is the only hope to save Pakistan from a complete crumble, said speakers of the third International Conference on Computer & Emerging Technologies (ICCET 2013) held at Shah Abdul Latif University (SALU).
In a panel of discussion on the Role of ICT and Consumer to Mitigate Energy Crisis in Pakistan, Dr Raziq Yaqub, Director Technical Training, NIKSUN, USA suggested using solar panels to run tube-wells. Small-scale electricity could also be generated from the water flow of tube-wells. Similarly, flow of water in kitchen tap and bathroom shower in houses could be used for this purpose.
Dr Zubair A Shaikh said Pakistan is an agricultural country with vast opportunities to generate electricity from bio-waste. Such plants could be established at sugar mills, rice husking mills, livestock farms and food processing centers. Bio-waste in homes and villages could also be used to generate energy. Other speakers including Dr Mahmood Shah, Dr Thuy, Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui, Dr Syed Irfan Haider, Dr Nisar Ahmed Memon, Dr Abdul Rehman Abbasi, and Yasir Ahmed suggested manufacturing of domestic type, home-grown, mini wind turbines. The speakers highlighted the role of solar energy and said solar panels should be used for streetlights and other purposes. Solar technologies should be given priority, particularly for being used in Agriculture. Loans can be arranged by banks to purchase solar panels.
They said energy efficient buildings should be constructed that may have skylight windows (to eliminate the need of bulbs). They said better adaptive insulating material saves energy as it changes properties with outside climate. They said this material if used in construction that absorbs and reflect heat as per weather requirement saves energy spent on heating and cooling the house. They said calculators should be developed to calculate energy requirements of new constructions like big plazas, buildings and complexes. They urged encouraging distributed/localized generation to avoid transmission losses. They said line losses are the biggest water of energy in Pakistan.
