Producing energy through fossil fuel is no longer feasible due to global warming that has resulted in climate change. Director of Programmes, Renewables First, Mustafa Amjad, says renewables are the future and Pakistan will soon be a solar powered country. -SDTV copy
"The real need is to evolve how we operate the market, new mechanisms to provide flexibility 4:09 through the grid. Things like virtual power plants."
Transcripts here for readers writers and researchers
WATCH: Beyond the Grid: Pakistan's Solar Revolution Sep 30 2025
Pakistan "Pakistan has immense solar irradiance– one of the highest in the world."
Transcript
The world has gone bonkers because of these floods and extraordinary events taking 0:13 place around the world which are climate related. Very simply if I put it down this fossil fuel 0:20 producing energy through the fossil fuel is not sustainable anymore. So fossil fuel is there but 0:26 the word is switching to renewables and clean energy green energy is the future but what are 0:33 the connotations how to manage the fiscal side and everything we have today with us a very eminent 0:39 guest who has hands-on experience in this field and uh he's the head of first renewables Mr. Mustafa 0:46 very warm welcome. You say something on which I've just said as a basic premise and then we rumble on 0:51 for one. Totally agree. I think um you are spot on. The world has decided as a whole and Pakistan 0:58 included by the way that the future has to be renewables. Um and obviously it comes with its 1:04 own set of challenges. Not that you know thermal didn't have challenges, it had its own challenges. 1:08 They overcame that. Now it's renewables. It's the air of renewables. It will come with its 1:12 own set of challenges. But that's the evolution that all the countries have to go through. Some 1:17 are better equipped. Some have to learn how to do it. But all of us will have to take this journey 1:23 and that's the reality and Pakistan has been um making quite a few good strides on that front 1:29 with with a lot of solar panel being imported. Um obviously we are the second largest market 1:34 of Chinese solar imports for the last year. So that's that's a huge um start. uh over the past 1:40 four or five years we've imported almost 40 plus gawatt of solar panels obviously that's a good 1:47 indication of where the market is headed so for Pakistan we are going to be a solar economy soon 1:52 uh it comes with a lot of different benefits uh if not already let's be honest I think a few people 1:58 would agree that you know we're already there uh but the quantum will keep on increasing solar will 2:03 be followed by batteries that's a whole revolution in play um and this revolution obviously has a lot 2:10 of benefits. It's improving electrification rates. It's improving uh per capita consumption. It's 2:16 costing less in terms of electricity, but it's also challenging the grid. Yeah, challenging. 2:20 You know, one of the biggest challenges as you know the economist say the creative destruction. 2:25 Yeah. Already we have the infrastructure and all that and do you think that the government is spot 2:30 on ready for that to take the policy initiative very aggressively where they don't care about 2:35 this creative destruction and go ahead? Do you think? Yeah. No, it will take some time. Um, 2:39 this is a disruption. This is nothing else than a disruption. Obviously, it's it's a 2:43 good disruption of course uh for the people, but but but nonetheless, it has its challenges. 2:48 And when I talk about those challenges, obviously the government will have to equip itself to solve 2:53 those. Um what does that equipping look like? It's essentially rethinking the way we operate 2:59 the grid. So, uh you know, previously the role of the grid was to provide electricity. Going off 3:04 grid. Now, now, now the solution, now the role of the grid is to match demand and supply. So, that's 3:10 a very different role to what we've been doing for the past 50 years, what we normalized as the way 3:15 to go. So, so it's it's a a lot of unlearning that we'll have to do before we go into the 3:19 learning part. Uh but given the speed and scale of Pakistan's energy transition, unfortunately, 3:25 or fortunately, we'll have to do it in a very quick. No, no, it's very amazing. Recently I have 3:29 a chance to visit an industry and inside they had installed captive energy of 20 megawatt solar and 3:36 they have installed a 20 megawatt grid also. So we can understand what's if I ask you to summarize 3:42 your thought at the moment on all that in just one or two lines. How would you do that? No I I 3:47 think the the the real thing that needs to be done is to evolve how uh we operate the market. So new 3:54 market mechanisms will have to come up. We have to rethink tariff. We have to incentivize people to 3:59 use more electricity. That is very different to how we've operated. Talking about policy, 4:03 of course, the policy, the market mechanisms, we have to think of, you know, providing flexibility 4:09 through the grid. Things like virtual virtual power plants, thing things like, you know, time 4:14 of use charges, uh, contract for differences. So all of those technical solutions exist to kind of, 4:20 you know, accommodate all of this decentralized solar coming on the grid. It's just that Pakistan 4:25 will have to move really quickly to keep up with the pace in which people have been importing and 4:30 market has been enabling uh Pakistan's solar rush. So thank you very much for giving so much 4:36 ample time for that and I think whatever you have said is very useful. You have just heard 4:41 what he has said and I think that is the bottom line. sooner or later or not sooner or later. 4:47 Right now Pakistan is moving towards electric electricity driven energy needs for which whole of 4:53 the batteries and to stabilize the grid you know all the and uh recently there was uh there was a 5:01 whole seminar on best battery electric storage system and all that. So that is the future and 5:07 I think when technology comes like this like so much at a cutting edge nobody can resist that 5:16 and that is inevitable that has to take place for thank you very much. Thank you. All right. [Music]
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