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Business Standard
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
China powers Pakistan's green energy ambitions amid IMF's loan conditions
Bootstrapped Pakistan has been slapped with 11 new conditions by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the release of its next tranche of bailout programme. One of the conditions ties Pakistan's access to the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) to its efforts to tackle climate change and promote clean energy for long-term economic stability. And Pakistan looks no further than its 'iron brother' China to meet this need. Lucky Cement, one of Pakistan's largest cement manufacturers, now has Chinese wind turbines and solar panels supplying over half of its energy needs at its Karachi plant. This shift has significantly reduced the company's carbon footprint, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 60,000 tonnes annually, the Financial Times reported on Monday. Chinese solar panel prices have dropped sharply in recent years, while electricity costs from Pakistan's grid have risen. In response, Islamabad imported solar panels with a total capacity of around 19GW last year, the Financial Times quoted Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst at BloombergNEF, as saying. She estimates Pakistan is still importing panels capable of generating 1GW to 3GW each month this year—enough to power a city of millions. China's role in Pakistan's energy transition At the heart of this renewable energy transition is China, which has been Pakistan's largest investor in the energy sector. Since 2005, China has invested over $68 billion in Pakistan, with energy projects accounting for 74 per cent of that total. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), launched in 2015 as part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, has been the driving force behind this investment, particularly during its first phase, which focused on coal-based power generation. Of the 13 GW of power added to Pakistan's grid, 8 GW came from coal, while renewable sources like solar and wind contributed just 1.4 GW. But now both countries are looking to up the investment in green energy projects. Notable among the projects under the CPEC framework include the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park in Pakistan's Punjab region. Wind projects in Sindh and hydro plants in the north further diversify the energy mix, supporting the goal of 30 per cent renewables by 2030. Demand for Chinese batteries While a shift to Chinese wind turbines and solar panels has helped companies like Lucky Cement to reduce its carbon footprint, it still relies on fossil fuel generators to ensure a stable energy supply. To address this gap, Lucky Cement is investing 1.5 billion Pakistani rupees ($5.3 million) in Pakistan's largest battery energy storage system (BESS), supplied by China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL). The 20.7 MW system will store renewable energy for use during off-peak hours or in case of grid instability, and it will be capable of powering 20,000 homes for one hour when fully operational. As the prices of wind, solar, and battery technologies continue to fall, Lucky Cement expects a faster return on its investment, allowing the company to further increase its use of clean energy. Karachi-based Diwan International has reported a 33 per cent drop in the price of 5 kWh BYD batteries, making them more accessible to wealthier households, mosques, and businesses. The challenges However, the widespread adoption of renewable energy in Pakistan is not without its challenges. While solar power is becoming more affordable, battery storage remains costly, limiting its reach to lower-income households. The Pakistani government has taken steps to address these issues, including slashing industrial tariffs and offering surplus grid power to sectors such as crypto mining and AI data centres. Despite these measures, the divide between wealthier users shifting to solar and poorer households struggling with rising bills continues to widen. Moreover, attracting clean energy investment in Pakistan has become more difficult. Since the pandemic, only $4.86 billion of Chinese energy capital has flowed into Pakistan, much of it directed towards a single nuclear project in Chashma. Lucky Cement's shift to renewable energy supports the IMF's push for cleaner, more sustainable energy. This move also benefits Chinese companies, as they play a key role in supplying the solar, wind, and battery technologies driving Pakistan's green energy future.
CNN
13-02-2025
- Business
- CNN
This alien-like field of mirrors in the desert was once the future of solar energy. It's closing after just 11 years
From a distance, the Ivanpah solar plant looks like a shimmering lake in the Mojave Desert. Up close, it's a vast alien-like installation of hundreds of thousand of mirrors pointed at three towers, each taller than the Statue of Liberty. When this plant opened near the California-Nevada border in early 2014, it was pitched as the future of solar power. Just over a decade later, it's closing. The plant's co-owner NRG Energy announced in January it was unwinding contracts with power companies and, subject to regulatory approval, would begin closing the plant in early 2026, readying the site to potentially be repurposed for a new kind of solar energy. For some, Ivanpah now stands as a huge, shiny monument to wasted tax dollars and environmental damage — campaign groups long criticized the plant for its impact on desert wildlife. For others, failures like this are a natural part of the race to find the winning solutions for the clean energy transition. When Ivanpah was conceived, its technology, called concentrated solar or thermal solar, was considered a potential breakthrough. It works like this: Hundreds of thousands of computer-controlled mirrors called 'heliostats' track the sun and concentrate its rays onto three towers, each around 450 feet tall and topped with water-filled boilers. The sun's hyper-concentrated energy turns this water to steam, which drives a turbine to create electricity. One of the key selling points of this solar technology is the ability to store heat, allowing the production of electricity at night or when the sun isn't shining without needing batteries. The project got buy-in from the government with $1.6 billion in Department of Energy loan guarantees, and from utilities Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Edison, which both entered long-term agreements to buy Ivanpah's power. In 2014, it started commercial operations as the world's largest solar thermal plant, spread across around 5 square miles of federal desert. 'This project is a symbol of the exciting progress we are seeing across the industry,' said then Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, in February 2014 during a dedication ceremony at the site. So, where did it go wrong? First, the technology proved finnicky and never quite worked as well as intended, said Jenny Chase, a solar analyst at BloombergNEF. These kinds of plants 'are just technically really difficult to operate,' she told CNN. They combine all the tricky, mechanical parts of a fossil fuel plant — running a turbine and maintaining many moving parts — with the challenges of a distributed energy source. The technology relies on mirrors tracking the sun exactly. 'It's really hard to get those all lined up perfectly and keep them lined up at all times,' Chase said. But perhaps the biggest problem for Ivanpah is that photovoltaic solar — the technology used in solar panels — became really, really cheap. In some parts of the world 'you can basically buy a solar module for the price of a fence panel,' Chase said. At the time Ivanpah was built, 'nobody really would have dreamed that photovoltaics would be this cheap, and batteries are doing a similar thing,' she added. A spokesperson for NRG said prices were competitive when the power agreements were signed in 2009. But over time, advancements in other types of solar technology 'led to more efficient, cost effective and flexible options for producing reliable clean energy.' In January, NRG finalized negotiations with PG&E to terminate power purchase agreements which were supposed to end in 2039. This 'will provide significant savings for California ratepayers,' the company's spokesperson said. A spokesperson for Southern California Edison said it was in ongoing discussions with the plant owners and the DOE about its contract. For critics of Ivanpah, its imminent demise is proof the plant should never have been built. It 'was a financial boondoggle and environmental disaster,' said Julia Dowell, senior campaign organizer at the Sierra Club, an environmental organization. 'The project's construction destroyed irreplaceable pristine desert habitat,' she told CNN. Ivanpahs's location in the sweeping, sun-drenched Mojave Desert may have seemed ideal for generating solar power, but it is also a habitat for threatened desert tortoises. While the plant's developers agreed to a series of measures to protect and relocate the animals, many environmentalists believed the plant should not have been approved. The other big issue was bird deaths. Reports of 'streamers' — birds incinerated midair by the beams of intense heat from the mirrors — solidified opposition. NRG did not respond to specific questions about the plant's impact on wildlife. Some commentators are using Ivanpah to make the case that renewable energy projects should not receive government money, a view that appears to fit with the new administration's. One of President Donald Trump's first actions was to pause approvals of new renewable energy projects on federal land. But renewable energy experts say it's important for governments to invest in a range of clean technologies, and many of those they have invested in, such as photovoltaics, have worked out. It wasn't clear which solar technologies would prove most cost effective when Ivanpah was being built 15 years ago, said Kenneth Gillingham, an economics professor at Yale School of the Environment. 'Picking winners is extremely difficult,' he told CNN, 'and it's not a problem that some technologies are outcompeted by others, as long as innovation continues occurring.'
CNN
13-02-2025
- Business
- CNN
This alien-like field of mirrors in the desert was once the future of solar energy. It's closing after just 11 years
From a distance, the Ivanpah solar plant looks like a shimmering lake in the Mojave Desert. Up close, it's a vast alien-like installation of hundreds of thousand of mirrors pointed at three towers, each taller than the Statue of Liberty. When this plant opened near the California-Nevada border in early 2014, it was pitched as the future of solar power. Just over a decade later, it's closing. The plant's co-owner NRG Energy announced in January it was unwinding contracts with power companies and, subject to regulatory approval, would begin closing the plant in early 2026, readying the site to potentially be repurposed for a new kind of solar energy. For some, Ivanpah now stands as a huge, shiny monument to wasted tax dollars and environmental damage — campaign groups long criticized the plant for its impact on desert wildlife. For others, failures like this are a natural part of the race to find the winning solutions for the clean energy transition. When Ivanpah was conceived, its technology, called concentrated solar or thermal solar, was considered a potential breakthrough. It works like this: Hundreds of thousands of computer-controlled mirrors called 'heliostats' track the sun and concentrate its rays onto three towers, each around 450 feet tall and topped with water-filled boilers. The sun's hyper-concentrated energy turns this water to steam, which drives a turbine to create electricity. One of the key selling points of this solar technology is the ability to store heat, allowing the production of electricity at night or when the sun isn't shining without needing batteries. The project got buy-in from the government with $1.6 billion in Department of Energy loan guarantees, and from utilities Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Edison, which both entered long-term agreements to buy Ivanpah's power. In 2014, it started commercial operations as the world's largest solar thermal plant, spread across around 5 square miles of federal desert. 'This project is a symbol of the exciting progress we are seeing across the industry,' said then Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, in February 2014 during a dedication ceremony at the site. So, where did it go wrong? First, the technology proved finnicky and never quite worked as well as intended, said Jenny Chase, a solar analyst at BloombergNEF. These kinds of plants 'are just technically really difficult to operate,' she told CNN. They combine all the tricky, mechanical parts of a fossil fuel plant — running a turbine and maintaining many moving parts — with the challenges of a distributed energy source. The technology relies on mirrors tracking the sun exactly. 'It's really hard to get those all lined up perfectly and keep them lined up at all times,' Chase said. But perhaps the biggest problem for Ivanpah is that photovoltaic solar — the technology used in solar panels — became really, really cheap. In some parts of the world 'you can basically buy a solar module for the price of a fence panel,' Chase said. At the time Ivanpah was built, 'nobody really would have dreamed that photovoltaics would be this cheap, and batteries are doing a similar thing,' she added. A spokesperson for NRG said prices were competitive when the power agreements were signed in 2009. But over time, advancements in other types of solar technology 'led to more efficient, cost effective and flexible options for producing reliable clean energy.' In January, NRG finalized negotiations with PG&E to terminate power purchase agreements which were supposed to end in 2039. This 'will provide significant savings for California ratepayers,' the company's spokesperson said. A spokesperson for Southern California Edison said it was in ongoing discussions with the plant owners and the DOE about its contract. For critics of Ivanpah, its imminent demise is proof the plant should never have been built. It 'was a financial boondoggle and environmental disaster,' said Julia Dowell, senior campaign organizer at the Sierra Club, an environmental organization. 'The project's construction destroyed irreplaceable pristine desert habitat,' she told CNN. Ivanpahs's location in the sweeping, sun-drenched Mojave Desert may have seemed ideal for generating solar power, but it is also a habitat for threatened desert tortoises. While the plant's developers agreed to a series of measures to protect and relocate the animals, many environmentalists believed the plant should not have been approved. The other big issue was bird deaths. Reports of 'streamers' — birds incinerated midair by the beams of intense heat from the mirrors — solidified opposition. NRG did not respond to specific questions about the plant's impact on wildlife. Some commentators are using Ivanpah to make the case that renewable energy projects should not receive government money, a view that appears to fit with the new administration's. One of President Donald Trump's first actions was to pause approvals of new renewable energy projects on federal land. But renewable energy experts say it's important for governments to invest in a range of clean technologies, and many of those they have invested in, such as photovoltaics, have worked out. It wasn't clear which solar technologies would prove most cost effective when Ivanpah was being built 15 years ago, said Kenneth Gillingham, an economics professor at Yale School of the Environment. 'Picking winners is extremely difficult,' he told CNN, 'and it's not a problem that some technologies are outcompeted by others, as long as innovation continues occurring.'
CNN
13-02-2025
- Business
- CNN
This alien-like field of mirrors in the desert was once the future of solar energy. It's closing after just 11 years
From a distance, the Ivanpah solar plant looks like a shimmering lake in the Mojave Desert. Up close, it's a vast alien-like installation of hundreds of thousand of mirrors pointed at three towers, each taller than the Statue of Liberty. When this plant opened near the California-Nevada border in early 2014, it was pitched as the future of solar power. Just over a decade later, it's closing. The plant's co-owner NRG Energy announced in January it was unwinding contracts with power companies and, subject to regulatory approval, would begin closing the plant in early 2026, readying the site to potentially be repurposed for a new kind of solar energy. For some, Ivanpah now stands as a huge, shiny monument to wasted tax dollars and environmental damage — campaign groups long criticized the plant for its impact on desert wildlife. For others, failures like this are a natural part of the race to find the winning solutions for the clean energy transition. When Ivanpah was conceived, its technology, called concentrated solar or thermal solar, was considered a potential breakthrough. It works like this: Hundreds of thousands of computer-controlled mirrors called 'heliostats' track the sun and concentrate its rays onto three towers, each around 450 feet tall and topped with water-filled boilers. The sun's hyper-concentrated energy turns this water to steam, which drives a turbine to create electricity. One of the key selling points of this solar technology is the ability to store heat, allowing the production of electricity at night or when the sun isn't shining without needing batteries. The project got buy-in from the government with $1.6 billion in Department of Energy loan guarantees, and from utilities Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Edison, which both entered long-term agreements to buy Ivanpah's power. In 2014, it started commercial operations as the world's largest solar thermal plant, spread across around 5 square miles of federal desert. 'This project is a symbol of the exciting progress we are seeing across the industry,' said then Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, in February 2014 during a dedication ceremony at the site. So, where did it go wrong? First, the technology proved finnicky and never quite worked as well as intended, said Jenny Chase, a solar analyst at BloombergNEF. These kinds of plants 'are just technically really difficult to operate,' she told CNN. They combine all the tricky, mechanical parts of a fossil fuel plant — running a turbine and maintaining many moving parts — with the challenges of a distributed energy source. The technology relies on mirrors tracking the sun exactly. 'It's really hard to get those all lined up perfectly and keep them lined up at all times,' Chase said. But perhaps the biggest problem for Ivanpah is that photovoltaic solar — the technology used in solar panels — became really, really cheap. In some parts of the world 'you can basically buy a solar module for the price of a fence panel,' Chase said. At the time Ivanpah was built, 'nobody really would have dreamed that photovoltaics would be this cheap, and batteries are doing a similar thing,' she added. A spokesperson for NRG said prices were competitive when the power agreements were signed in 2009. But over time, advancements in other types of solar technology 'led to more efficient, cost effective and flexible options for producing reliable clean energy.' In January, NRG finalized negotiations with PG&E to terminate power purchase agreements which were supposed to end in 2039. This 'will provide significant savings for California ratepayers,' the company's spokesperson said. A spokesperson for Southern California Edison said it was in ongoing discussions with the plant owners and the DOE about its contract. For critics of Ivanpah, its imminent demise is proof the plant should never have been built. It 'was a financial boondoggle and environmental disaster,' said Julia Dowell, senior campaign organizer at the Sierra Club, an environmental organization. 'The project's construction destroyed irreplaceable pristine desert habitat,' she told CNN. Ivanpahs's location in the sweeping, sun-drenched Mojave Desert may have seemed ideal for generating solar power, but it is also a habitat for threatened desert tortoises. While the plant's developers agreed to a series of measures to protect and relocate the animals, many environmentalists believed the plant should not have been approved. The other big issue was bird deaths. Reports of 'streamers' — birds incinerated midair by the beams of intense heat from the mirrors — solidified opposition. NRG did not respond to specific questions about the plant's impact on wildlife. Some commentators are using Ivanpah to make the case that renewable energy projects should not receive government money, a view that appears to fit with the new administration's. One of President Donald Trump's first actions was to pause approvals of new renewable energy projects on federal land. But renewable energy experts say it's important for governments to invest in a range of clean technologies, and many of those they have invested in, such as photovoltaics, have worked out. It wasn't clear which solar technologies would prove most cost effective when Ivanpah was being built 15 years ago, said Kenneth Gillingham, an economics professor at Yale School of the Environment. 'Picking winners is extremely difficult,' he told CNN, 'and it's not a problem that some technologies are outcompeted by others, as long as innovation continues occurring.'
