CPEC helped Pakistan realize its renewable energy potential

BEIJING: The cooperation on renewable energy sector, such as hydropower, wind power and photovoltaic power, between China and international community has been enhanced in recent years, Gwadar Pro reported on Wednesday.

China has established 58 bilateral cooperation projects and participated in 33 multilateral cooperation projects with other countries including Pakistan. China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute (CREEI) released a report this week about the development of China’s foreign cooperation on renewable energy sector in 2019.

The report acclaimed that Pakistan timely adjusted its renewable energy development goals and policies in 2019, according to national development stage and the latest demand. Meanwhile, “Pakistan is rich in clean energy resources and has great potential for development. Thanks to CPEC, China and Pakistan have deepened cooperation in this field.

According to the report, hydroelectric power is still the most important resource of renewable energy. The 64 countries along BRI have become the most popular areas for hydropower investment, such as Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Those countries, with rich hydropower resources and low degree of exploitation, have huge potentials to develop hydropower.

By the end of 2019, China had participated in 24 hydropower projects in Pakistan, with an installed capacity of about 12,282MW. Among them, there are 9 projects under construction with an installed capacity of 6680MW, 15 projects have been built, with an installed capacity of 5602MW.

Including Pakistan, China has established cooperation on hydropower with several countries. Ranked by the scale of projects, among the top 20 countries with China participating in hydropower cooperation, Myanmar has 39 projects with a scale of 20,858 MW. Pakistan has 24 cooperation projects with a scale of 12,282 MW; Laos has 55 cooperation projects with a scale of 10,683 MW.

Regarding wind power, by 2030, there will be a triple increase of onshore wind and tenfold increase of offshore wind around the globe while a large-scale electrification will be achieved. China accounted for seven of the world’s top 10 wind power developers by installed capacity in 2019, and all the top four.

The scale of China’s foreign cooperation on wind power has reached 6424MW, mainly in onshore wind power and in Asia-Pacific region, the report added.