After a week of high level meetings with representatives from the United States and China to discuss Pakistan’s energy crisis, Pakistani officials appear to be making headway. A delegation of USAID met with Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Asif in Islamabad last Wednesday and indicated that $853 million would be provided to power companies for the purpose of capacity building. The delegation further assured support for the construction of hydel projects, namely the Diamer Basha‚ Gomal Dam and Tarbela expansion projects.

Additionally, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with officials from China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) to discuss the creation of solar power plants. Research suggests that areas in southwestern Balochistan and the central Punjab province have year round sunshine to generate power.

The rapid developments that are occurring with respect to energy projects are hardly surprising. In fact, Prime Minister Nawaz’s political future teeters on whether or not he can find a solution to – literally – take the country out darkness. During Pakistan’s election season, every candidate promised to revitalise the country’s faltering economy through mega-projects and revamp the domestic industries. Yet, with power outages slicing upwards of 7 per cent of the country’s GDP, the inability to turn on and keep on the lights is Pakistan’s most pressing problem.

Pakistan’s energy woes are epic, but they are surmountable. Other less developed nations, including Sri Lanka and Ghana, have been able to utilise renewable energy, which begs the question as to why Pakistan cannot do so also. The energy crisis presents investment opportunity for potential jobs in the renewable energy sector, which is why Sharif has been galvanizing support for renewable projects.

The first impediment to Pakistan’s sustainable energy future is overcoming mental road blocks. The trouble rests less in financial barriers as it does in the failure of energy policymakers to capitalise on brainpower for energy innovation. The problem with intercorporate or circular debt can be managed with the right political will and economic policies, but the failure to innovate is harder to transcend. For this, research, development, and deployment (RDD) are critical. The government or private foundations can fund innovation prizes to promote scientific inquiry.

The second impediment is the failure to actualise environmental externalities when configuring energy costs. The source of energy and its impact on the environment do not weigh into the discussion. Sharif, who presented himself as a pro-business candidate, will have to look not at a financial bottom line but the triple bottom line (3BL) of people, planets and profit. Sharif’s cheekiness with regard to the environmental and wildlife conservation is epitomised by his use of an endangered white tiger in past campaign rallies. In fact, just days before last month’s election, one of these endangered white tigers was said to have succumbed to death due to prolonged exposure to heat. BBC reported that the tiger was, in fact, alive and well. The leadership of the country has a duty not only the people of Pakistan, but also to its wildlife, land, water, and other natural resources. Both national and international legal norms would suggest environmental protection as an imperative. The World Wide Fund for Nature indicated that the endangered white tigers are extremely sensitive to heat and noise. And as such, these tigers should never be put on display at campaign rallies.

The same can be said of mega-hydropower dams as being a sizeable energy source: Large dams should never have been used. The World Commission on Dams determined that “large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams can have devastating impacts on the lives and livelihoods of affected communities and ecosystems.” (1) Incidentally, Pakistan generates over 30 per cent of its electricity from hydropower. The use of small scale hydropower, including hydrokinetic energy, which harness power from the movements of waves and tides through underwater turbine, would be one of many potential energy sources to exploit.

Innovation in the energy sector while thriving in neighboring China and India has been stagnant in Pakistan. Prospects for coal in the Thar region and Iranian oil and gas imports, however, are not long term solutions because an over reliance on imported fossil fuels is unsustainable. Large dams have served Pakistan for a number of years, but should be crossed out as a long term answer as well, because of environmental degradation, aging and costly hydropower infrastructure.

The United States has pledged over $30 billion in aid to Pakistan since 1948, but has overlooked the feasibility of nascent energy technologies to relieve the country’s acute energy crisis. The US Department of State and USAID recognised the need for alleviating energy poverty and creating sustainable energy options in Pakistan as a part of the civilian assistance program to Pakistan. Until now, hydrokinetic energy has been ignored in solutions for Pakistan’s acute energy crisis. A part of the solution for Pakistan’s power outages is hydrokinetic energy.

The hydrokinetic energy option particularly presents an opportunity for Imran Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), because the Khyber Paktunawala region has steep mountainous rivers, which can harness these energy resources in the monsoon and rainy seasons. Additionally, coastal areas in Karachi can develop offshore hydrokinetic energy projects. The country’s unique topography is ideal for this type of tidal and wave energy.

Businesses in both urban centers of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and rural areas have managed to function with a dilapidated energy grid, but consider the possibilities if there was a sustainable energy solution. Previous projects, funded by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund have turned to small scale dam proposals; however, they have not developed the possibility of hydrokinetic energy. Since Pakistan already derives 30 per cent of its energy from hydroelectricity in the form of large dam projects (2), hydrokinetic energy would be able to provide a low-cost energy solution using the existing energy grid.

Scientists note that the hydrokinetic energy is more reliable than solar and wind energy because it is not intermittent. The power of the waves is the power for the future.

(1) World Commission on Dams, Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making 199 (2000).

(2) Sumita Kumar, Pakistan’s Energy Security: Challenges and Options, Strategic Analysis, 34:6, 2010, 912-924. A look at the figures given in the Energy Yearbook brought out by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources in Islamabad shows Pakistan’s energy outlook.