CapAsia goes to Pakistan for wind energy

Construction will begin at the end of 2011, with a completion date targeted in March 2013. The project is part of the government's push for renewable energy investment, first announced in 2006, but only taken up in earnest in the past six months.

In 2007, former President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, said he hoped alternative energy could help increase power generation by 10-12% per annum in a country where many of the 150 million people still live off the grid.

Mirza Arshad Ali Beg, President of the Pakistan Environmental Assessment Association previously said in an interview with media that he worried about the government's policy because it could not be accomplished without the help of foreign capital and goods. "For solar power we will depend on imported photovoltaic cells, for windmills we shall have to depend on an investor to bring in the necessary technology, equipment and parts, and we will see similar scenarios with biogas or energy from solid waste, or even nuclear energy."

He appears to be right. In November of 2010, Pakistan and the United States signed a wind power generation project agreement slated to be completed in 2012, which would cost $375 million for a wind farm capable of producing 150MW of electricity. It was the first of its kind, using a public-private partnership model often employed for infrastructure projects in countries like India and China. And, last month the ADB agreed to lend up to $200 million to help fund several wind farm projects that would produce 250MW per annum of power.

The potential for the use of alternative technologies to produce energy in Pakistan has never been fully explored, but the regions of Gharo and Jhimpir in the Sindh Province have better wind resources than other areas, with wind speeds averaging nearly 7 meters per second.

The IIF was developed jointly by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and now counts CapAsia as fund manager.

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• South Asia
• Cleantech
• Standard Chartered Private Equity
• CIMB Standard Strategic Asset Advisors