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Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Pakistan: Potential for Geothermal Energy Development

Renewables Readiness Assessment: Pakistan (IRENA)

Pakistan’s geothermal resources remain largely unexplored. No comprehensive assessment of the potential has been made nor does a policy framework exist to encourage private participation in the sector. Some scientific studies have located potential geothermal resource areas in the country.

Most of the world’s high enthalpy geothermal resources are within the seismic belts associated with zones of crustal weakness. One example is the seismotectonic belt that passes through Pakistan, which has a long history of geotectonic events (Zaigham, Nayyar and Hisamuddin, 2009). Thus the country in all probability has commercially exploitable geothermal resources.

The sporadic efforts to assess the potential have all concentrated on identifying geothermal phenomena and locating production zones. However, assessors need to go further and integrate their efforts. They need to estimate the size of the resource base, determine heat content of fluids and compile a comprehensive database (Zaigham, 2005).

Conscious of geothermal as a potentially valuable renewable energy resource, Pakistan became a member of the Global Geothermal Alliance in December 2015 and adopted the Florence Declaration at the alliance’s high-level ministerial
meeting in Florence, Italy, in October 2017. In so doing, Pakistan has joined the global commitment to a fivefold increase in geothermal power generation and a 100% increase in geothermal heat by 2030.

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