According to Aleternative Energy Board of Pakistan, a global seismic belt passes through Pakistan and the country has a long geological history of geotectonic events. The Geotectonic framework shown above indicates that Pakistan should not be lacking in commercially exploitable sources of geothermal energy. AEDB is working on a preliminary study on technical, economical and market aspects of geothermal utilization possibilities and detailed feasibility studies for geothermal energy utilization. Let’s take a look at what Geothermal energy is?

We have prepared a concise summary of Geothermal power and its use in the world – aggregated from various top sources.

Geothermal power is energy generated by heat stored in the earth, or the collection of absorbed heat derived from underground, in the atmosphere and oceans.  As of 2008, geothermal power supplies less than 1% of the world’s energy. Geothermal power requires no fuel, and is therefore virtually emissions free and insusceptible to fluctuations in fuel cost. And because a geothermal power station doesn’t rely on transient sources of energy, unlike, for example, wind turbines or solar panels, its capacity factor can be quite large; up to 90% in practice.

Geothermal has minimal land use requirements; existing geothermal plants use 1-8 acres per megawatt (MW) versus 5-10 acres per MW for nuclear operations and 19 acres per MW for coal power plants. It also offers a degree of scalability: a large geothermal plant can power entire cities while smaller power plants can supply more remote sites such as rural villages.

Geothermal resources range from shallow ground to hot water and rock several miles below the Earth’s surface, and even further down to the extremely hot molten rock called magma. Wells over a mile deep can be drilled into underground reservoirs to tap steam and very hot water that can be brought to the surface for use in a variety of applications. Geothermal power is generated in over 20 countries around the world including the United States, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Turkey, France, The Netherlands, Lithuania, New Zealand, Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia, the People’s Republic of China, Pakistan, Japan and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Chevron Corporation is the world’s largest producer of geothermal energy.

A global seismic belt passes through Pakistan and the country has a long geological history of geotectonic events. Several projects are  on the roll these days which include Remote Sensing Studies, geothermal geology, geothermal hydrogeology, hydrogeochemical Studies, geophysical Studies and preliminary Study on Technical, Economical and Market Aspects of Geothermal utilization possibilities and detailed feasibility studies for geothermal energy utilization. Projects like these if being managed and properly financed by Pakistani government should result in a major solution for meeting the energy shortage.

A 2006 report by MIT, that took into account the use of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), concluded that it would be affordable to generate 100 GWe (gigawatts of electricity) or more by 2050 in the United States alone, for a maximum investment of 1 billion US dollars in research and development over 15 years. The MIT report calculated the world’s total EGS resources to be over 13,000 ZJ. Of these, over 200 ZJ would be extractable, with the potential to increase this to over 2,000 ZJ with technology improvements – sufficient to provide all the world’s present energy needs for several millennia. The key characteristic of an EGS (also called a Hot Dry Rock system), is that it reaches at least 10 km down into hard rock. At a typical site two holes would be bored and the deep rock between them fractured. Water would be pumped down one and steam would come up the other. The MIT report estimated that there was enough energy in hard rocks 10 km below the United States to supply all the world’s current needs for 30,000 years.

Citing technical reasons, oil refineries in Pakistan have refused to take up the refining task of ethanol-blended motor gasoline. The refineries have asked the government that Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) should work on the subject of ethanol-blended motor gasoline refining.

The government is working on different options of alternative resources for fuel to reduce the dependence on the import of petroleum products that were putting burden on the foreign exchange reserves. The country’s import bill was over 11 billion dollars during the last financial year, which could exceed 14 billion dollars during the current financial year. The higher import of petroleum products is the major reason to deplete the foreign exchange reserves.

According to sources, oil refineries have also refused to take up the refining task as they claim loss of about 44 million dollars per year on the export of additional surplus of 135,000 tonnes naptha due to blending of ethanol in gasoline.

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Sources said that the committee working on the ethanol-blended motor gasoline had proposed to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to determine the prices of ethanol-blended motor gasoline.

The existing oil pricing formula would also be applied to the prices of ethanol-blended motor gasoline. The government will charge Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) and General Sales Tax (GST) on the ethanol-blended motor gasoline and the Petroleum Ministry has worked out the maximum ex-depot sale price of E-10-based ethanol-blended gasoline at Rs 77.89 per litre, 78.40 per litre, Rs 78.91 per litre and Rs 79.43 per litre following price of molasses at 70 dollars per tonne, 80 dollars per tonne, 90 dollars per tonne and 100 dollars per tonne respectively. These prices include the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) of Rs 28.84 per litre, 0.30 per litre freight charges, Rs 1.21 per litre to Rs 1.28 per litre Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) margin, 0.20 per litre OMCs return on the infrastructure investment, Rs 1.39 per litre to Rs 1.47 per litre dealers commission and 16 percent GST.

Pakistan’s existing production capacity of fuel grade ethanol is 271,800 tonnes annually as against 400,000 tonnes production potential per annum. Local price of ethanol will depend on the purchase price of molasses by the distilleries and government intervention is necessary to control the price of molasses, which are an exportable commodity and an agricultural product with basic use in cattle feed. The exporters exported 234,060 tonnes ethanol in nine months from January to September 2008 as against 255,000 tonnes in the 2007 calendar year.

This picture is representative of the problems with petroleum supply and the infrastructure issues in Pakistan. Petrol pumps across major cities have been closed due to an acute shortage of fuel. The sign reads: ‘The flow of petrol from Karachi has stopped. We apologise for the inconvenience.’  People complained that petrol pumps owners have intentionally stopped getting gasoline and diesel from companies to avoid financial losses.
Photo credit: APP.