The World Bank and Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB)-Government of Pakistan are implementing a Renewable Energy Resource Mapping activity covering all of Pakistan. The project is funded by World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and focuses on the assessment of wind, solar and biomass resources, including ground-based data collection, GIS analysis, and geospatial planning. Total budget of the project is US $ 4.47 million.

The Renewable Energy Resource Mapping Project is comprised of following three phases for wind and solar components;

• Phase    1 – Project inception, preliminary modeling and implementation planning:
• Phase 2 – Ground-based data collection: Implementation of a ground-based measurement campaign using high quality solar and wind measurement stations.
• Phase 3 - Production of validated solar and wind resource atlases

Project activities were initiated in February 2014 with an inception workshop and meetings with stakeholders. Separate teams of consultants are working on each component i.e. wind, solar and biomass. 

Initial Results: Phase-1 of the project was completed in Oct.2014 and intermediate resource assessment using satellite and other existing data was carried out. The initial results, which were presented on 15^th October, 2014, represent a major improvement over previous assessments and can be used immediately to help inform policy-making and commercial project development. 

Biomass Mapping: Biomass mapping component of the project has covered all the four provinces, however, main focus was on Punjab and Sindh Provinces. This component has assessed the quality and quantity of available biomass and agricultural waste and study the most appropriate and competitive technologies to utilize available biomass for energy production.