http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...25-2-2007_pg5_4


Work on three coal-fired power plants in Sindh begins

KARACHI: Three coal-fired power plants would start operation in Sindh in the next two and half a year, as the physical work on these power plants in Thatta, Jamshoro and Tharparkar district has started.

The physical work on 300MW power plant at Sonda coalfield near Jhirak, district Thatta at a cost of $450 million, 150MW power plant costing $250 million at Lakhra coal field, district Jamshoro and 1000MW power plant costing $1.2 billion in Tharparkar has started.

Sindh Governor Dr Ishratulul Ibad Khan and Provincial Minister for Mines & Mineral Development Irfan Marwat Saturday in a meeting reviewed the progress of the projects.

The foreign investors working on these projects have been made to provide job opportunities essentially to the locals. In case skilled workers are required, the investors would also impart training to the local people.

Governor Ibad said that at least eight thousand people would directly get the jobs after the three projects become operational. ppi

excellent news.

While the rest of the world moves away from power plants that spew tons of toxins into the air and destroys the enivironment and contributes to global warming, our country is going back to it. In Oman they are building a 750 MW solar power plant, in Saudi Arabia they are building a solar powered desalination plant that will be the biggest in the world and have plans to build a solar power plant that will dwarf the one in Oman. In the US, wind energy is the future. In Europe, wind and geothermal energy are making huge strides and in China, they are going to have more renewable sources of energy than coal by 2030. But in Pakistan, we are still using 19th century technology.

solar power is not that strong at all. Pollution is aproblem when you have hundreds of plants, like the ones being built in china and in operation on the US. Coal plants are also being built all over the world.

i think this is good news and Pakistan should produce more power from clean coal.

Good news!!!

Maybe this will help solve the power problems cities like Karachi are facing.

Euorpe during ther last 150 years of industrailsation pumped billions of tonnes of buring coal into atmosphere and now when Asia has awaken and when we want make countrys white peoples point fingers at us and say we are the culprits, who cares about enviroments, no use in any protocols until US sings Koyoto. They burn 20 mbpd of oil first they stop then we shall think about it.

More powerplants =

Coal fired plants =


Pakistan is already very polluted,

What happened to natural gas powered plants instead? Isn't there alot of it in Balochistan?
Solarcells arent powerfull enough yet, windmills could be an alternative, but hey, now this has been decided...

Hopefully this is just an temporary solution a 1.2bn dollars temporary solution to fill the gap...

Aziqbal, that is true, but that was before we (human beings) knew what was happening. Now with the knowledge we have about this we should be better than them (their 150 years "them").

we may not be polluting as much as some countries but i firmly believe that in the next 10 yrs your going to see an emissions trading system put in place worldwide which might actually hit us hard if we keep going for coal fired plants. this is just a guess but i think that the environment is becoming a more and more hotly debated topic and eventually national govts will be forced to draw up a plan to combat it....

guys, pollution is a problem when you have hundeds of coal fired power plants, like China and the US. There
is a new coal fired plant that opens in China every week. Pakistan has very few coal fired plants. There are also techniques you can use to reduce the pollution, which i hope they are going to use.

Pakistan is getting increasingly energy deficient. The blackouts in Karachi was because of 500MW shortage in supply versus demand. It is only going to get worse as economy and natural demand grows. Pakistan desperately needs electricity.

solar power is not that strong at all. Pollution is aproblem when you have hundreds of plants, like the ones being built in china and in operation on the US. Coal plants are also being built all over the world.

i think this is good news and Pakistan should produce more power from clean coal.

Euorpe during ther last 150 years of industrailsation pumped billions of tonnes of buring coal into atmosphere and now when Asia has awaken and when we want make countrys white peoples point fingers at us and say we are the culprits, who cares about enviroments, no use in any protocols until US sings Koyoto. They burn 20 mbpd of oil first they stop then we shall think about it.

We don't have a single coal fired power plant .. and here we have guys who things that making these plants in remote area is going to create pollution ..

why not stop all petrol products too ... heck what even furnace oil (majority of our power plants are on this type of fuel) is a major pollutor .. why not stop all these power plants ..

I am sure we can live alone on high quality oxygen !

This is great begining from us on an unutilized power source. Once we start excavating cheap coal, we might even become export of coal for the international market where even today.

Under construction coalfired power plant :-

USA ...

http://www.fotosearch.com/DGT078/cb027454/
http://www.cwlp.com/electric_division/gene...nstruction1.htm

India ...

http://www.fotosearch.com/STK004/pgb1155/

Korea ...

http://www.power-technology.com/projects/hadong/


A very interesting artile from Usa .. (nothing to do with Pakistan).

DOE Database Reflects Resurgence of Coal-Fired Power Plant Construction


November 28, 2005

A database maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) tracks proposals for new coal-fired power plants, reflecting continued interest in the use of coal for the generation of electric power.

The database, "Tracking New Coal-Fired Power Plants," was created by the Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to provide occasional "snapshots" of proposed plants.

Key data points gleaned from the database include:

Eighty-seven gigawatts (GW) of new coal-capacity are projected to be needed by 2025, according to DOE's Energy Information Administration.
Seventy-seven GW of new coal-fired power plants are under consideration, representing 129 coal-fired power plants - enough electricity to power 77 million homes.

Coal continues to be a critical energy resource for the U.S., providing more than 50% of U.S. electricity. According to the DOE, there is a 250-year-plus supply of domestic coal, basic on current use rates.

Proposals to build new power plants are often speculative and the decision whether a plant will be built is based upon the fluctuating economic climate of regional power generation markets. Although comprehensive, the database information is not intended to represent every possible plant under consideration, but instead illustrates the large potential emerging for new coal-fired power plants, said the DOE.

NETL created the database in 2002 and it is updated every few months as new information is obtained on proposed new coal-fired power plants. The results contained in the database are derived from information publicly available from a variety of tracking organizations and news groups.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy.

America and Europe put more pollutants into the atmospehere than the rest of the world combined. Their economic growth has depended on it. why should we care? i know that sounds selfish but do we have a cheaper and more viable alternative?

we have billions of tons of coal and an increasing gulf between the power we have and the power we need.

what can we do?

we need energy to feed the industrial units and also the masses, there can be ways to lessen the pollution but that does not mean we cant use the coal to produce energy.

I think we all need to remember that Pakistan has opted for coal power plants because we have massive proven coal reserves. It is much cheaper for Pakistan to use this coal to generate power than have to import oil. Plus it will also help reduce our widening trade deficit which stood at $12 billion last year and this year will likely be even higher.
It is this deficit which is our biggest problem now, it is a direct treat to our long term economic propects and our foreign exchange reserves. Until we can get it under control, Im afraid pollution will have to take a back seat.

Yes. This coal needs to be exploited to the fullest extent. I mean there are estimated 200 to 300 billion tons of coal, which is I think the 2nd or 3rd largest in the world. And according to one article I read, it said that with the latest advancement in coal related tech, this coal could do for Pakistan what Oil had done for GCCs.

So I say lets smoke them coals... with some hickory or mesquite on 'em.

well i dont think coal reserves are that large, and they are of poor quality. Still coal-fired power plants are very few in Pakistan and we need to build many more, its the best thermal power option we have.

I agree that it is cheaper to burn coal, however from a strategic point of view it is bad policy. Furthermore, think of all the scientific innovation we could have in Pakistan if the government were to spend billions of dollars on solar and wind power initiatives. I have said this before, but the US DOE has numerous articles (just search online wind power US) in which it says that the Texas alone could satisfy the ENTIRE energy needs of the US with wind power. And due to large increases in energy prices here in the states, companies, universities and government agencies are making huge investments in research efforts that have already tripled the output of wind turbines. India is investing in energy research and while we perhaps cannot match their investment in the fusion energy project, we can spark creativity and give our universities and business people a chance to restart the innovation that was common to the Muslim world centuries ago. Coal is old, pollutive and a long term blunder. We are always relying on other people for technology b/c we never want to take the harder road.

I dont know what you want to achieve from projecting India and there so called reaserch.

Fact of the matter is that wind and solar resources are still less then 1% of world power resources and untill today the coal is second largets power source in US and developed world.

Unless there is a break through the wind and solar resources are just a dream.

The Wind energy (cheapest) would csot 9-11 cents/unit while coal costs around 3-6 cents per unit, we built a power station near Koat Addu, a desert and it is not causing any harm to population and still providing cheap energy, we have a huge landbank which is inhibited and it would be wise to set up coal based power units in these regions.

By the way, the most profitable sector in US after Tech and Health care is coal industry, it is growing on 100% rate and even related industries like carriage (rail) and processing are cashing huge profits.

Where did you got your facts apart from India?

DOE studies are projections. Wind turbines in Amarillo, TX, are good but not enough for the surroundings. Also it is the pan-handle area (Wichita Falls) where the topology makes wind power economical. This is not true for entire TX. At present wind energy in Pakistan can be tapped in the costal areas (there are some farms - a Dutch company has installed wind turbines) however a comprehensive wind surey of the country is lacking.
Specific output power of solar energy is not enough. Plus it is expensive. Solar stills and desalination are viable. Bio gas in rural areas is also in use (NWFP).
With the new scrubber technology, coal can be burnt efficiently and cleanly. The Tennesse Valley Authority is installing new scrubbbers on old coal fired plants.
A large part of the Pakistan energy is produced using expensive oil and gas. Coal is promissing low cost energy alternative.

there are different types of these and though none of these are clean,some of the new ones are a little more effecient and less polluting.But i doubt we are getttin top notch stuff,remember the bibi period when she basically allowed obsolete/banned plants in Pakistan,which were highly uneffecient and very costly,basically technology dumping!
Hopefully this wont be that bad,but i still doubt we are getting top quality.and wind is quite viable as well.Its just nature,developing country arent that concerned abt pollution but i doubt this is going to fuel the rural sindh! so if ppl would to see the emissions,they'd probably wont be too happy abt it.



dont u think nuclear power plants would be better,bigger bang for the buck?if we can have good quality control and take care of the waste,it shud be better than coal still?If we want to invest in unclean energy,wudnt nuclear power be better?

Mr.tkhan,what kind of innovations are u referring to?be more specific.Many in india consider cow urine to be healthy and have healing powers and there is even research on it,but is that very useful when the whole world already knows that the cows own body is trying to get rid of it,it cant be very useful.There are only so many options when it comes to energy.wich innovations r u talking abt?I dont agree with reinventing the wheel,energy is probably the largest concern of the academia after probably health care,so i doubt there is lack of research on the subject matter.I think we just started late and maybe our energy consumption keeps growing exponentially with our improvement of technology.

Here is India's "so called" research contribution:

ITER

About ITER

They are participating in the development of the future of power generation on this planet. In 50 years, when fusion energy becomes a viable alternative, India will be a expert producer and will have created thousands of domestic experts, gained a great deal of high energy physics knowledge and will have a lot of expertise in a critical industrial application. That is India's research. We have nothing to compare with it. Thats just a fact and is a long term problem for Pakistan. No one can argue with that.

Furthermore, if one were to just browse the web for info about the new generation of wind turbines and solar cells, they would find an exciting world of clean, inexpensive and reliable alternatives to coal. Coal may cost 3 cents per kwh to produce, but when you add in the environmental and health care costs in addition to realizing that the government lost a prime oppurtutnity to open a totally new industry within Pakistan, replete with thousands of high tech jobs which would pay dividends for our academia and educational programs, translates into a much higher cost for coal power.

I am not forcing anyone to reject coal, but when you look at what the successfull and powerfull countries are doing, you see that they are not interested in building nothing but coal plants and oil refineries. They are readying for the next generation.

renewable energy is neither powerful enough nor reliable enough to replace thermal energy.