Pakistan
covers 796,095 square kilometers of land between latitudes
24° and 36°north and longitudes 61° and 76°
east. At present, it faces serious energy problems: 95 per
cent of its electricity generation comes from hydropower,
which becomes less productive during the driest, hottest
months of the year and cannot keep pace with the sharp rise
in energy demand. Also, about 70 per cent of the population
lives in some 50,000 villages dispersed around the country.
Many of these villages are far from the main transmission
lines of the national grid and, because of their relatively
small populations; it is usually not economically viable
to connect these villages to the grid. Solar energy, on
the other hand, has excellent potential in areas of Pakistan
that receive high levels of solar radiation throughout the
year. Every day, for example, the country receives an average
of about 19 Mega Joules per square metre of solar energy |
